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ROWLEY, JAMES
TITLE:
THE SETTLEMENT OF
THE CONSTITUTION...
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DA TE:
1877
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Rowley, James, m. a.
... The sottleiiic'ut of the coiLstitution. 1689-1784 P.^
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.^pr^lS^S. London, Lon^.ns. 1B77. ' ""^^P^"^
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MASTER
NEGA TIVE
NO. 93-81262
MICROFILMED 1993
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK
as part of the
"Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project"
Funded by the
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Reproductions may not be made without permission from
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States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or
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archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other
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A UTHOR:
ROWLEY, JAMES
TITLE:
THE SETTLEMENT OF
THE CONSTITUTION...
PLACE:
LONDON
DA TE:
1877
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
PRESERVATION DEPARTKIENT
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Rowley, James, m. a.
... Tlio sottleiMciit of the coii.stitutioii. 1689-1784 Bv
James Eowloy ... With four maps. Ne^v- York Earner
&>othersy-1878. Lon<Ion, Lonraans. IQ77 ' -^^^P"^"^
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Beside the main topic, this book also treats of
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-1
Epochs of English History
EDITED BY THE
REV. M. CREIGHTON, M. A.
SETTLEMENT of the CONSTITUTIOA
EPOCHS OF ENGLISH HISTORY
THE
.l>«)iri^,\VOOl)H AXU CO.. XE\V-STUi;i.l sQLAUt
an:) PAKLIAMKST hTUKKT
SETTLEMENT OF THE
I CONSTITUTION
1689-1784
BY
JAMES ROWLEY, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL
/^
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WITH FOUR MAPS
"^^'^K. /
untuKtnMm
,y
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LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
I
!l 1877
All rights reserved
CONTENTS.
Introduction
PAGE
I
BOOK I.
THE KKVOLUTION SKTTLEMF.yT (1689-1701).
CHAPTER
I. England and the Revolution ....
II. Scotland and the Revolution ....
III. Ireland and the Revolution ....
IV. The Williamite War with France ....
V. William III. and his Parliaments
2
7
12
16
20
\
w^
ROOK II.
THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (I702-I713).
I. The causes of the War • •
II. The War itself
III. Constitutional History during the War ....
IV. The Tory Ministry and the Peace of Utrecht
BOOK III.
ENGLAND UNDER THE RULE OF THE GREAT FAMILIES
(1714-1756).
I. The First Years of the House of Hanover
II. The Ministry of Sir Robert Walpole ....
III. The Pelhams ..,•■•
31
38
43
47
53
61
■4.
VI
Contents.
BOOK IV.
THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR (l7c6-I76q)
CHAPTER ^ ' -^ / O/-
I. How the War was brought about
II. The events of the Seven Years' War
III. The Rise of the English Power in India
BOOK V.
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE KING AND THl WHIG
HOUSES (1762-1784).
I. First Ten Years of George III.'s Reign
II. George III. and Lord North
PAGE
68
72
79
INDEX OF PERSONS
INDEX OF PLACES
86
92
103
107
MAPS.
1. The Low Countries, and neighbouring lands
2. Scotland and North of England .
3. North America and West Indies
4. The East Indies . . . ,
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THE
SETTLEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION,
-•o»-
INTRODUCTION.
V
The chief aim of this little book is to show the following
things : —
1. How the Revolution of 1688 made the House of
Commons the strongest thing in the State.
2. How England engaged in a long and costly war
with France, the greatest nation in Europe at
that time, because the French king thought fit to
meddle in her affairs, and how she won much
fame and new lands thereby.
3. How a new line of kings was set on the throne ;
and how, during the reigns of the first two o
these kings, the great families among the English
nobility took to themselves the foremost place in
ruling the country.
4. How the rule of the great families broke down at a
time when England was called upon to put forth
all her strength ; and how the task of guiding
the country through its troubles was given to a
man of surpassing genius, who raised it to a height
of greatness such as it had never before reached.
E.H,
r: ^ r
Settlement of the Constitution. 1689.
5. How a king came to the throne, who strove with all
his might to beat down the strength of the great
families, and win for himself some of the power
which his forefathers had held ; and how, after a
hard fight, he gained his object.
BOOK I.
THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT
CHAPTER I.
ENGLAND AND THE REVOLUTION.
I. In February 1689 the Lords and Commons asked
William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, to
William,
King,
1689-1702
become King and Queen of England.
Mary,
Queen, 1689-
1694.
William and Alary agreed to do so ; and at
once the new order of things which is called
the '■ Revolution settlement,' began.
2. Though a good many changes in our
rulers and ways of ruling have been brought about by
force, the change made at this time is the only one
' Revoiu- ^° which the name ' Revolution ' has been
tion ' not a given. Yet it is not a good name. For the
fo°r°the"change change, though it led to great things in later
of 1688-9 times, w^as not itself a great one. The laws
which were in force under William and Mary were not
very different from those which ought to have been in
force under James II. The rights of the people were
much the same. The Declaration of Rights made
nothing law that had not been law before. It only
stated clearly, so that henceforth there could be no mis-
tak about them, what the rights of the people were.
!'
1689. England and the Revolution. 3
3. Yet the nation gained a good deal by the Revolu-
tion, ^i) There was no longer as much quarrelling be-
tween the king and the Parhament as there what the
had been. Parliament now got the masterv Revolution
in the State ; from this time it grew ever Engbnd.
stronger, and the king ever weaker, until the king could do
nothing which the Parliament disliked, and the Parliament
could force the king to do anything it pleased. (2) The
House of Commons became much more powerful than
the House of Lords. All the money that was wanted for
keeping up an army and a navy, or for any other public
purpose, had first to be voted by the Commons. Thus
the Commons were able henceforth to get anything thev
greatly wished to have ; for, if the king or the Lords
were unwilling to assent to what they asked, they had
only to refuse to vote the taxes, and the king and the
Lords had to assent. It is true that the king might still
choose his ministers ; but, if most of the Commons did
not like a minister, they could make the king send
him away. Hence the king had to put into offices of
State such men as the Commons wished to see there.
(3) Though the laws were much the same, the way in
which they were put in force was difTerent. Parliament
made a law that the judges should stay in their offices so
long as they gave just judgement. Before this the king
could make and unmake judges as he pleased, and so
they had been too careful to do his will.
4. The parliament which gave the throne to William
and Mary had not been called by a king, and was there-
fore supposed not to be a true parliament,
able to pass laws binding on the people. It
was only named a convention. But it was
thought dangerous to have a new parliament
chosen while men's minds were unsettled ; and
accordingly it changed itself from a convention to a parlia-
E 2
The Con-
vention
made a
Parliament.
February,
1689.
.,-.*.
4 Settlement of the Cojistitittion. 1689.
ment. It lasted a year longer, and did many things of
great importance.
5. The men who had been most helpful in bringing
about the late changes did not all belong to one party ;
William's some were Whigs, some were Tories. William
first therefore wished to show no liking for W^higs
more than for Tories, and took as his ministers
men of all parties. Chief among these were the Earls of
Danby, Nottingham, and Shrewsbury\ This plan, how-
ever, did not work well ; and afterwards William had to
choose his ministers almost all from the same party ; the
Commons would not let him do anything else.
Moreover the men who had been most helpful in bring-
ing about the late changes were not all of the same way of
thinking in religion ; many of them belonged to the
Church of England ; many were Dissenters. It seemed,
therefore, a fitting time to grant the Dissenters some
relief from the harsh laws passed against them in Charles
II.'s reign. Protestant Dissenters, save those who denied
the Trinity, were no longer forbidden to have
tion Act, places of worship and services of their own,
Apnl, 1689. jf ^j^gy would only swear to be loyal to the
king, and that his power was as lawful in Church as in
State matters. The law that gave them this is called
the Toleration Act. Men's notions were still, however,
very narrow ; care was taken that the Roman Catholics
should get no benefit from this law. Even a Protestant
Dissenter might not yet lawfully be a member of either
House of Parliament, or take a post in the king's service ;
for the Test Acts ^ were left untouched.
6. King William, who was a Presbyterian in his own
The Com- land, wanted very much to see the Dissenters
sctem^"^ won back to the Church of England. To
tSSq. bring this about, he wished the Church to
alter those things in the Prayer Book which kept Dis-
1 See Epoch V., pp. 64, 68.
1689.
Enoland and the Revolution.
5
A*
9*
f
senters from joining with her. But most of the clergy
would not have any change ; and because ^these were
the stronger party in Convocation — as the Parliament of
the Church is called — William could get nothing done.
At the same time a rent, which at first seemed likely
to be serious, was made in the Church itself There was
a strong feeling among the clergy in favour of jj^g j^q„.
the banished king. So a law was made by jurors, 1689.
which every man who held any preferment in the Church,
or either of the Universities, had to swear to be true to
King William and Queen Mary, or had to give up his
preferment. Most of the clergy were very unwilling to
obey this law ; but only 400 were found stout-hearted
enough to give up their livings rather than do what they
thought to be a wicked thing. These were called nou-
JurorSj or men who would not swear. Among ihem were
five out of the seven Bishops who had withstood James II.
only a year before. The sect of non-jurors, who looked
upon themselves as the only true Churchmen, did not
spread. But it did not die out altogether until seventy
years ago.
7. It was at this time that the names High-Church
and Low-Church first came into use. The parties so
called were of much the same way of thinking as High-
Churchmen and Low-Churchmen are now. Another new
name, which we shall meet very often, is also
now first found in our history. Those who ites, 1689-
wished to bring back James 11. were known ^^^'
as yacobites (from Jacobus^ the Latin word for James)
just as those who held to William were known as Wil-
liamites. The Jacobite party were never strong enough
to rise in arms during this reign ; but it was very rest-
less, made many plots, and gave a good deal of trouble
to the Government. Its great longing was to overthrow
William by getting Lewis of France to send an army to
6 Settlement of the Constitution. 1689-90.
England. The English never cared much for William.
He was a stranger ; his temper was gloomy ; he was
Characters ^^^^ ^"^ distant with all save his old and
of William tried friends ; and he took no pains to win the
and Mary. i r ^i i
love ot those who came near him. Mary's
character was different ; she was frank, cheerful, and
gay ; and her sweetness of temper and grace of manner
did more at first to strengthen the new order of things
than all her husband's wisdom and valour. But there
was a good deal of mismanagement and wicked dealing
among William's ministers at this time ; some men in
office thought the new king and queen would soon be
Unpopu- driven out of the kingdom, and eagerly filled
wmTam's t^^^^ pockets out of the king's treasurv
rule at first, whilst they had the chance. In this way the
Government fell into disfavour with the people ; the
Jacobites became every day stronger ; and before a year
was over it seemed as if the Revolution Settlement would
soon be all unsettled again by a second restoration of the
Stuarts.
8. Moreover, William was himself ill at ease in
England. His Whig ministers quarrelled with his Tory
William's ministers ; Parliament would not give him the
dissatisfac- revenue which had been given to James H. •
it would not settle the Crown, as William
wished, on the Electress Sophia of Hanover in case he
and Mary died childless. Nor would it agree to an Act
for granting a full pardon to the agents of tyranny in
the late reigns unless a great many men were shut out
from its benefits. Early in 1690 the king is said to
Revolution have thought of going back to Holland so
d^iSdvTd"' little did he like the way the English were
1690. treating him. However this may be, he
deemed it impossible for him to get on with the Parlia-
ment that then was ; therefore he put an end to it, and
h
iU
1689-90. England ajid the Revolution, j
called a new one, which he hoped would be easier to
deal with.
9. But before this, two laws of great importance had
been passed— the Mutiny Bill and the Bill of Rights.
The Mutiny Bill gave the king power to put The Mutiny
to death any soldier who deserted his ^^^^' ^^^9-
colours or mutinied against his officers. At first it was
very short, and was to have force for six months only ;
but it has since grown into a kind of military code, and is
passed from year to year. It has thus become a means of
forcing the king to bring together Parliament every year.
The Bill of Rights is little more than the The Bill of
Declaration of Rights ^ turned into a regular Rights, 1689.
law. There are two things, however, in it which are
not in the Declaration : (i) it makes it impossible foi
any King or Queen of England to be a Roman Catholic ;
and (2) it settles that the Crown has no power of setting ^
aside a law in any case whatever. The Declaration had
only said that the way in which James had used such a
power was unlawful.
But bitter foes rose up against the new settlement in
Scotland, Ireland, and France.
CHAPTER II.
SCOTLAND AND THE REVOLUTION.
I. In 1688-9 Scotland and England were still separate
kingdoms. The only bond of union between them was
that the king of one country was also kin? of
, , - , - _ England
the Other. It was not therefore a matter of and Scotland
course that when James II. ceased to be ^" ^^^9-
King of England, and William and Mary were given his
place in England, he should cease to be King of Scot-
1 See Epoch V., p. 79.
2 Ibid. p. -j^.
8
Settlement of the Constitution. 1689.
land also, and William and Mary be given his place
in Scotland. It was for the Scottish people to decide
whether they would follow the lead of England. But
the bulk of the Scottish people were only too glad to get
rid of the Stuarts. The Stuarts had tried to root out
the Presbyterian religion, and had set up among them
a Church which most Scotsmen disliked and many
hated. In other ways, too, the later Stuart kings had
The Scots deeply wronged the worthiest of their Scot-
jamefiLf ^^^^ subjccts ; they had caused oppressive
1688. laws to be made, and had dealt harshly with
those whom they disliked or feared. As soon, therefore,
as the Scots heard of the overthrow of James II.'s rule
in England, they took up arms and frightened the Scot-
tish Council into changing sides. Then many Scottish
noblemen and gentlemen, who chanced to be in London,
Scottish ^""^^^ together and asked William to assemble
Convention a Convention of the Scottish Estates, and
meets .
March, take upon himself the rule of the country in
1689. ^j^g meantime. William did both the things
they asked ; and in March 1689 the Scottish Convention
came together in Edinburgh.
2. James had still some friends left him in Scotland.
Chief among these was John Graham of Claverhouse,
^ , ^ now Viscount Dundee, who worked hard to
Graham of • i ^
Claver- make a party m the Convention m favour of
°"^^' his old master. When he failed he rode away
with fifty horsemen to his castle in Angus. The Estates
at once went swiftly to work. They voted that James, by
his acts of injustice and tyranny, had fore-
faulted {foj-feited) the throne, and was no
longer king, and agreed to ask William and
Mary to become King and Queen of Scot-
land. They also drew up a statement of the
people's rights, which they called the Claim of Right, and
William and
Mary-
chosen
King and
Queen of
Scotland,
1689.
1689.
Scotland and the Revolution,
told the men whom they sent to offer the crown to William
and Mary to take care that the new king and queen
should promise to abide by this claim as long as they
reigned. Tliis paper said that prelacy, or the rule of the
Church by bishops, was unbearable, and ought to be
done away with. In May the Scottish crown was offered
to William and Mary on these terms. They agreed to
them, and took the oath in the form which the Estates
had approved of Thus a king and a queen who had no
other title to rule save what Parliament could give them
were set up in Scotland as well as in England.
3. There were still Scotsmen who thought that the
Estates had been over-hasty in what they had done ; and
there were others who felt that James was still ^he High-
their lawful king, and that they were bound to landers.
fight for him at all risks. Most of the chieftains of the
Highland clans were of this way of thinking ; and these
men were able to do much mischief, for their clans-
men were sure to follow them in any cause with dog-like
fidelity. The Highlanders were a daring race, fond of
fighting, often at war among themselves, and had usages
and laws of their own.
Many Highland chieftains now saw reason to take up
arms for James ; and a war broke out which lasted for
almost a year. It is true that the largest clan,
the Campbells, whose chief was the Earl of out in Scot-
Argyle, was loyal to William ; but most of ^^"'^' ^^^9-
the other clans hated Argyle and looked upon his friends
as their foes. As soon, then, as Dundee came into their
country they at once gathered round him. He was just
the man to lead them, being fearless and skilful, fiery in
onset and wary ; and he was willing to let them deal
with their foes their own way. In May 1689 some thou-
sands of armed Highlanders came together in Lochaber ;
Dundee put himself at their head, and civil war began.
lO
Settlement of the Constitution. 1689-90.
4. To make head against this danger General Hugh
Mackay was sent from Edinburgh with a few thousand
Battle of soldiers. For a time nothing was done ; but
hankie ^^^^ ^^ J^^^ Mackay led his army through the
July, 1689. wild pass of Killiecrankie. He was making
for the Castle of Blair in Athol, which had fallen into
Dundee's hands. But Dundee was too quick for him ;
Mackay's men had just reached the head of the pass,
when, in the dusk of the evening, the Highland army
came down upon them. There were only 2,000 High-
landers against 4,000 trained soldiers ; yet so mighty was
their rush that in a few minutes Mackay's army was
broken in pieces. But a chance bullet smote down
Dundee, and the cause of James gained nothing by the
victory.
Less than a month later the shame of Killiecrankie
was wiped away by the heroic defence of Dunkeld. A
Defence of short time before, the Government had raised
Au"ust^' a regiment from ' the wild western Whigs,'
1689. ' who were such fierce Covenanters that many
of them thought it sinful to fight for William, for
in England William still upheld the bishops. This
regiment was called ' Cameronian,' from Richard
Cameron, a preacher who had been killed in the evil
days. Sent as a garrison to Dunkeld, they held the cathe-
dral of that place for four hours of the night against 5,000
Highlanders, whom they beat off at last. But their com-
mander, William Cleland, a very brave man, was killed.
Next year the last remnant of the Highland army was
caught sleeping, as it lay in Cromdale on the Spey, by a
force sent from Inverness, and was easily
wafend^, routed. This affair may be said to have ended
1690. ^j^g ^y^j. jj^ ^^ Highlands. Forts were built
to keep the clans in awe. Of these the strongest was
Fort William in the west, named after the king.
..'^
1690-92. Scotland and the Rcvolutiofi. 1 1
5. Yet the clans which had taken part in the war
still held aloof from the new Government ; and William
found that other means than war was needed to bring
them to put themselves under his rule. He sent money
to be divideci among their chiefs, and let it be made
known, at the same time, that he was ready to forgive all
who would swear, before January i, 1692, to be foyal to
him for the future. When that day came, it turned out
that all had sworn but the Macdonalds of Glencoe.
Their chief, Maclan, had put off taking the Massacre of
oath until the latest day, and then, finding Glencoe.
no one at Fort William who could lawfully 1692'^"'''^'
give it to him, had to travel to Inverary in search of
some one who could. Thus it happened that Maclan
was not sworn until six days after the time fixed. Sir
John Dalrymple, William's chief man in Scotland, wish-
ing to strike a great fear into the Highlanders, whose
lawless habits he hated, did not tell the king that Mac-
Ian had come in at last, and got William to sign a warrant
giving his Scottish ministers power to root out ' that sect
{set) of thieves,' the men of Glencoe. Accordingly, in
February 1692, a band of soldiers, led by Captain Camp-
bell of Glenlyon, marched to Glencoe, and after having
lived as guests among the Macdonalds for twelve days,
fell upon their hosts before dawn one morning and
shot down thirty of them. The rest of the tribe, hearing
the peals of musketry, rushed out of their homes into
the surrounding mountains, then deep with snow. It
is thought that thirty more afterwards died of cold and
hunger. It was a frightful deed, and William has been
greatly blamed for it ; but it is hard to think that he
looked forward to such a thing being done when he put
his name to the warrant. Still when, some years later,
the Scottish Parhament dragged the horrible thing to
light, William did not punish as they deserved the men
12 Settlement of the Constitution. ,688-9.
who were chiefly guilty ; the worst of them, Dalrymple
he only sent away from his service. ^ '
6. In the meantime the Presbyterian form of Church
C™h\he'' '"","' "' ''''" '" Scotland and
henceforth there was less religious strife than before
The e„„,3 ,,.higs of the west were indeed angry becauTe
the Covenant was not also set up again, but the bulk of
the people were satisfied.
CHAPTER III.
IREL.4ND AND THE REVOLUTION.
what' tTf 1.°','°°,'' "" "^""^ '^"^^'■^"' '"■■" '" I^^'and from
what they had taken m Scotland. In that country the
Revolution led to a long and deadly war, in which neariy
Eng^sh. '' '" '^ ^""'l"^^^^ °^^^ ^S-" by the
Ireland, like Scotland, was in 1688 a separate kin<.-
dom with a Parliament of its own. But, unlike Scotland,
It was not free to act for itself; its Parliament could no
do what It pleased, as the Scottish Parliament could ■ it
was generally believed in England that Ireland ^as
?rUh"str "°*'."S but an English colony, and that
with James, "illiam and Mary became its king and
.688-9X. queen when they were chosen to the English
Most of the Irish people, however, wanted to keep
James II. as their king, because he had the same faith
as hemselves. But the English settlers, who were
Protestants were afraid of being massacred, or at least
of losmg their lands and powder in the country, if the
native Irish got the upper hand. Most of these there-
fore, would have no king but William, and taking up
1689.
Ireland and the Revolution:
\
T
i
\
13
arms, tried to hold out against Tyrconnel, James's deputy,
until help should come to them from England. They
were not very successful at first, and in the The English
beginning of 1689 had only two strong places se"iers side
in their hands— Londonderry and Enniskillen. William.
2. In March 1689 James came to Ireland from
France, and set about bringing the whole land under his
rule. He called a parliament to meet him at
Dublin, and then went north to join his army /oTeland,'^
which was marching to besiege Londonderry. '^^9-
In this city were gathered many thousands of the
English settlers who had fled from their homes through
fear of the Irish. They were bent on resisting to the
last, and would not listen to James, who offered to for-
give them if they would yield at once. Thereupon
James went back to Dublin ; and the siege of London-
derry began.
This siege lasted for more than three months. Some
people look upon it as the greatest siege in British
history. At first the Irish sought to batter
dowTi the town with cannon ; but the men London-
inside had made up their minds to bear any- ^^""y* ^^^9-
thing rather than give way. Then Richard Hamilton,
the Irish general, tried to take the place by storm ; but
the men of Derry fought well, and Hamilton had to call
back his soldiers. The Irish then waited quietly until
want of food should force the townsmen to give in. At
length, when all seemed over, three ships, sent from
England, made their way up the river Foyle, on which
the town is built, in spite of the Irish, and brought food
to the starving people. Then the besiegers
lost heart and marched away. About the Aulust!*^^^'
same time not only was Enniskillen relieved, '^^9-
but its defenders attacked a large body of Irish horse
near Newtonbutler, and put them to flight.
14
Settlement of the ConstitiUion. 1689-90.
1690-91. Ireland and the Revolution.
IS
3. The war had now become one of races and reh-
gions. Nearly all the Protestants distrusted James, and
held to William ; and the Irish longed only to drive the
Enghsh from the land, and get it to themselves. They
did not care for James because he was their rightful king,
Doings of but they fought for him because he was a
Pariil^ent, RoHian Catholic, and because they hoped he
1689. would give them the mastery of the country.
It was patriotism, not loyalty, which made them join
James. When Parliament met, it passed a bill for doing
away with an Act of Settlement made in 1663, that is,
for taking away from most of the English settlers the
lands which that Act had secured to them. A cruel Bill
of Attainder was also carried, by which 2,500 persons,
whose names were given, were ordered to deliver them-
selves up before a certain day, on pain of losing their
lands and being put to death without trial. James did
not hke either of these bills ; but through fear of dis-
pleasing the Irish he agreed to them both. This did
him much harm in England.
4. Next year, 1690, William himself came to Ireland.
Landing at Carrickfergus, he at once pushed towards
William Dublin with 30,000 troops, many of whom were
irefand" French Protestants, Germans, and Darfes.
June, 1690. During the winter King Lewis XIV. of France
had sent 7,000 French soldiers to aid James ; yet James
did not feel himself strong enough to meet his son-in-law
in the open field. He therefore posted his army, in
number about 30,000, on the right bank of the Boyne,
near Drogheda, and there awaited William's coming.
But William, on reaching the place, sent a force to cross
T5 ..T r I. the river six miles higher up. WHien James,
Battle of the ...... ° ^ -' '
Boyne, fearmg that his retreat to Dublin might be
July, 1690. ^^^j. ^^^ hurried with his French soldiers to
meet this force, William led his main body across the
river in front. The Irish horse fought well, the Irish
foot badly, and William won the day. James fled back
to France ; and William soon entered Dubhn, and put
the power there into the hands of the Protestants.' Then,
after taking several other strong places, he led his men
to Limerick, which he thought he could take very easily,
and so end the war. But there was a valiant Irish
general inside the city, Patrick Sarsfield, who saved
it for a time. Then William went back to England
(September 1690).
5. In June 1691 William's general, Ginkell, a Dutch-
man, renewed the war by taking Athlone before the eyes
of the enemy. Then following the retreating
Irish he came up with them at Aughrim. Aughrim,
Here took place the last pitched battle of this J^'^' ^^^i-
war. The Irish were strongly posted ; and for a time it
seemed as if they were going to win. But their general,
St. Ruth, got killed by a cannon-ball ; one last fierce
onset was made by Ginkell's men ; and the disheartened
Irish broke and fled. In another month Ginkell was
before Limerick, the last refuge of the native race.
There was little hope of their being able to beat back
their foes this time. A treaty was made in
which the victors pledged themselves to let Limenck,
the Irish worship God in their own way as ^^^•
freely as they had done in Charles II. 's time, and to allow
those soldiers of King James who had come from certain
counties to keep the lands they had in the same king's
reign. Many thousands of the Irish sailed away to
France, where they entered the army of King Lewis.
Ireland once more lay at the feet of the English.
6. The treaty of Limerick was not kept, though
William was eager that it should be. The Irish Parlia-
ment would not be bound by it, and made law after law
to take away utterly from the natives everything they
i6
Settlement of the Constitution. 1689.
most valued. To Protestants only was given any power
in the State ; and even those Protestants who dissented
from the Church could not sit in Parliament or hold
any place under the Crown. The law forbade Roman
Catholics to send their children to schools of their own
The Irish either at home or abroad, to buy lands, to vote
penal laws. fQj- members of Parliament, to keep arms, to
gain lands by marrying Protestant heiresses, or to inherit
lands from Protestants. Roman Catholic bishops were
to be banished from the country ; the priests then in
Ireland were allowed to stay on giving in their names to
the Government ; but care was to be taken that no others
should come to the country. Every Roman Catholic
was believed to be a rebel ; and Parliament wanted to
make the whole Irish people Protestant. Thus the
Revolution was far from being a blessing to the greater
part of the Irish nation.
CHAPTER IV.
THE WILLIAMITE WAR WITH FRANCE.
I. From the summer of 1689 to the summer of 1697,
England was waging a fierce and costly war with Lewis
XIV. of France. In this war the English
^^■Z^ spent more money and made greater efforts
1689-97- than in any previous one ; but they could not
help engaging in it. It was part of the price they had
to pay for getting rid of the Stuarts and making their
freedom safe. In 1689 they had to choose between a
war with France or taking back James as their king.
From his youth up William had been the steady foe
of the French king. Lewis XIV. was a very unpleasant
neighbour ; he had a large and well-trained army, and
r
1689. The Williamite War ivith France. 17
skilful generals, and often used his strength to seize
lands and towns which belonged to Germany or Spain.
•Once indeed (1672) he had sent an army into
Holland ; and ever after William thought of hl S
nothing so much as how to take away Lewis's ^^^^^ ^^^'
strength from him. It was this deep feeling of dislike of
Lewis, and dread that his power would do lasting harm
to the other States of Europe, that made William wish to
overthrow James II.'s rule in England. He knew that
so long as James was king, England would not only take
no part against Lewis, but might even help Lewis against
William and his friends. He also knew that there was
little chance of beating France in war if England stood
apart. William was of course glad to be able to save
English Protestantism and freedom ; but he wanted above
all things to draw England into the Grand Alliance which
Spain, Germany, and Holland had then formed against
Lewis XIV. Lewis was well aware that this War with
was William's aim ; he was afraid that, if \^\^^
England were added to the number of his ^lay, ^689.
enemies, he might lose his lordly place in Europe. There-
fore he determined to try and set James again on the
English throne. Thus war with France came soon after
the Revolution.
2. In this struggle England had many allies— the
Empire, Spain, Brandenburg (the Prussia of our own
times), and even Savoy. This array of States ^he Grand
against France was called the Grand Alliance. Alliance.
But France was then so mighty a power ; King Lewis
had so many and such good soldiers, and such wise
ministers and able generals, that William with all his
allies was not able to do him nearly so much harm in
this war as he had hoped. Indeed, most of the battles
in it were won by the French. One thing very much
strengthened Lewis against William— every army that
E. //. c
i8
Settlement of the Constitution. 1689-92.
fought for him did what it was bid and at the time it
was bid, whereas WiUiam could not always get the
Spaniards or Germans to come to him just when he
needed them. In this way Lewis was able to take for-
tresses from William before the smaller armies that
made up William's big army could be brought together.
3. For the first two years William was so busy in
England and Ireland that he had to leave the fighting
on the Continent to others. At first things went ill with
the English. Men in office and men in command were
sometimes careless, and did not do their duty. Even at
Battle of sea the English were beaten. The day before
p.eachy ^|-^g battle of the Boyne the English and Dutch
June,' 1690. fleets under the Earl of Torrington were
attacked by the French admiral, Tourville, off Beachy
Head, and were forced to flee.
4. Two years later Lewis and James made a plan for
landing an army in England, and beating down William
Threatered in that way. They hoped that James's English
invasion of friends would rise and join them, and that
^^t""^^ even the English fleet would not fight against
them. They had indeed good cause to hope that this
would be so, for some of William's own servants had
written to James promising to help him. One of these
was the chief admiral of the English fleet, Edward
Russell, who had first asked William to come to England.
We may be surprised to learn this, but great men in
England were then very base. They thought only of
themselves, and were ready to join one king or the other
according as each seemed likely to prevail.
In May 1692 all was ready ; 30,000 fighting men,
mostly Irish, were encamped near La Hogue
L^ Ho?ue. in Normandy, waiting to be carried over to
May, 1692' England. Tourville then sailed out with his
fleet to meet Russell. The English and Dutch at once
1692-97. The Williamite War with Pi-ance. 19
closed with him ; they had more ships than the French,
who got beaten and made for the land. Next day the
victors gave chase, and falling on the French ships burnt
or sank sixteen of the biggest of them. For a time
there was no more talk of invading England.
5 By land William was less prosperous. The year
before he had lost Mons ; this year he lost Namur, and
was defeated by the French general, Luxem-
burg, in the hard-fought battle of Steinkirk. ISnkirk,
But William was very skilful in contriving J"'^' ^^'^•
that the loss of a battle should do the least possible harm
to his army ; a few days after Steinkirk he had as strong
a body of troops as before, and Luxemburg dared not
try to follow up his victory.
Next year William was again beaten. Luxemburg,
with 80,000 men, caught him with only 50,000 near the
little stream of Landen, and forced him to
give battle. He stubbornly withstood the Landen,^
onsets of the French for a long time, but -^"^y* ^^93-
had to yield ground at last. Again William soon filled
up the gaps in his army, and the French gained little by
their victory.
6. In 1695 the fortune of war changed. Both parties
had been much weakened by the struggle, but England
less than France. Death, too, had carried wiiiiam
off Lewis's great general, Luxemburg. Ac- ^^^^^^s
cordingly when William laid siege to Namur 1695. '^'
the French were unable to drive him off, and William
took the place. This retaking of Namur was the finest
thing William ever did in war. It was also the last thing
he did. For, though the war lingered a while longer,
nothing worthy of mention was afterwards done in it. In
September 1697 peace was made at Ryswick.
By the treaty then made Lewis promised to give up
helping James II. to get back to the English throne,
c 2
20 Settlement of the Constitutiofu 1689.
and also agreed to look upon William as the lawful King of
England. It was not a peace for Englishmen to
Ry'l.wlck, be proud of ; but at least it stopped a foreign
1697- king from trying to thrust back upon them a
ruler whom most of them did not want.
CHAPTER V.
WILLIAM IIL AND HIS PARLIAMENTS.
I. Ar no time did Parliament gain so much that it
was able to keep lastingly, as in William III.'s reign.
One little fact is enough to show what a firm hold
upon power Parliament got by the Revolution. During
the seven years that went before the meeting of the Con-
vention only one Parliament was called, and that one
was not allowed to sit for quite two months ; whilst
Why Par- during the thirteen years that followed six
liament Parliaments were chosen, and not a single
stronger. year passcd without the Houses being brought
together, sometimes twice. Many causes worked to-
gether to make this change, (i) The Commons took care
not to grant so much money to the king personally as
had been granted to King James, and to make their
grants for a short time only, not for the king's life, as
formerly. (2) The king's wars were very costly, and he
had to ask at least once a year for a great deal more
money to keep up his army and navy. (3) Instead of
giving these moneys in a lump, Parliament appropriated
the supplies— that is, settled the way in which they were
to be spent, setting apart so much for one thing, and
so much for another. (4) The Mutiny Bill, without
which the soldiers and sailors cculd not be made to obey
their commanders, was passed for a short time only, and
.
1689-90. William III. and his Parliaincnts. 21
Parliament had to be called together to renew it. (5)
W^illiam had no right to be king save the right which
Parliament had given him, and therefore could not
afford to quarrel with it as the kings before him had
done.
2. Things did not go on ver}' smoothly between
William and his parliaments. Now and then a bad
feeling sprang up between them, and led more than once
to a serious misunderstanding. Throughout his reign the
Commons were bent on making their power felt by the
king and his ministers. They looked into all the busi-
ness of the State, forced the king to do many things
w^hich he disliked, made him alter things which he had
already done, and weakened his power in many ways.
William did not yield to the Commons without
making a stiff fight. It seemed to him hard that he, who
had done so much for the people's rights, should have so
many of his own rights taken from him. He would not
consent to some of the bills which Parliament passed
to lessen his authority. Thus he would not wiiiiam
consent to a law for making the judges inde- ^"^^ j°- .
pendent of him ; or to a law for keeping place- power.
vien (men who held places under the Crown) out of the
House of Commons ; or to a law for putting an end to
every Parliament three years after it had been first called
— the Triennial Bill, as its name was. Yet he was made
to give way on each of these at some time or other, for
there was a hne which W^illiam dared not pass. He
never fully understood the temper of the English, and did
not always act wisely. He was never altogether liked by
any class of his subjects.
3. His second Parliament did not cross him so much
as his first had done. It gave him a fixed income of about
1,100,000/. a year, part of it for life, part for four years.
It was also generous in voting taxes to enable him to
second par-
liament,
1690-95.
The origin
of the
National
Debt, 1693.
22 Settlement of the Constitution. 1690-94.
put large armies in the field ; but in doing so was careful
to see that the money raised was spent as it wished.
William's Two of the plans it was persuaded to agree to
are noteworthy. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer of that time, Charles Montague, who
became in later days Earl of Halifax, finding
the debts of the State growing bigger and
bigger from year to year, thought of having a
standing debt, and laid the plan before the Commons.
They agreed to it ; and in this way the National Debt
began. This is unlike other debts in that its interest
only need be paid. When William died the National
Debt had grown to 16,000,000/. The other plan was that
a }5ank should be founded, which was to have certain
powers of dealing in money on condition of lending the
Government 1,200,000/. This was the beginning of the
Bank of England (1694).
4. WiUiam did not give his consent to all the laws
that this Parliament passed. In 1693, ' The Bill for the
frequent calling and meeting of Parliaments,' known as
^ . . , the Triennial 13ill, fell throuirh in this way ;
Triennial . .' .*^ ji-j
Bill passed, but m 1 694 it was agam passed and laid
^ ^'^' before the king. This time he agreed to it ;
and henceforth until the reign of George I. no king could
keep a Parliament longer than three years, no matter how-
well pleased he was with it.
A few days after this Bill became law, Mary the
Queen qucen died of small-pox. She was a wise and
Mary dies, amiable woman, much loved by her husband,
JJecember, ' •' '
1694. who was deeply grieved at her death. In-
deed she was a great loss to him, for the English people
had always a kindlier feeling for her than ever they
had for her husband, and their love for her strengthened
William's throne.
5. It is to this Parliament also that the Enghsh owe
I
1
I
1
i
1694-96. William III, and his Parlialnents. 23
the freedom of their Press. In 1694, the law which had
hitherto made it unlawful for writings to be printed un-
less they had been read and approved of by the king's
licenser came to an end. In 1695 the Commons would
not let this law be renewed. After this time ^^^ p^^^^
any Englishman might print or get printed becomes .
anything he pleased. But the Courts might ^^^' ^^^'
still punish a man very severely if he printed anything
which the judges thought to be a slander upon the Go-
vernment, for, until 1792, the law of libel was very harsh.
6. With most of the four Parliaments that came after
this one, William had a great deal of trouble. His
ministers were not the same as at the beginning of
his reign. Nottingham, and Danby were now gone,
and their places had been given to Whigs. The wor-
thiest of the Whigs was John Somers, Lord Keeper, who
was the best lawyer then in England. But William had
to change his ministers very often. The Commons would
take a dislike to the highest among them, and would give
the king no peace until he sent them away. The truth is
that government by party was then just beginning. If
most of the Commons were Whigs, they made Beginning
the king choose his ministers from among goy^rn^"
the Whigs ; if most were Tories, from ment.
among the Tories. For the ministers could not get on,
unless most of the Commons were ready to vote for what
they wanted.
7. In 1696 the law ^for regulating trials in cases of
treason ' was passed. Men charged with treason had
hitherto little chance of being found not guilty, so much
against them were the rules that the Courts of Law fol-
lowed in trying them. They could not have skilled law-
yers to defend them ; those who bore witness in their
favour could not strengthen their witness with an oath.
The Act of 1696 did away with these unfair rules.
24 Settlement of the Constitution. 1696-99.
Henceforth men put on their trial for treason might
have counsel to plead their cause, and were to have lists
of the jurors and of the witnesses against
Law of them given to them some days before the day
^^^* named for their trial. Moreover, two wit-
nesses were henceforth needed to justify a jury in finding,
the accused guilty.
8. The same year an association was made to pro-
tect the life of King "William, like the one that was made
Assassina- ^^ 15^4 to protect Elizabeth.^ Some wicked
tion Plot men had bound themselves together to
Association, murdcr the king near Turnham Green as he
1696. ^^.^g riding home from hunting. This plot
was found out, and the chief men engaged in it were
tried and put to death. Then the Lords and Commons,
all but a very few, of their own free will signed a bond
in which they pledged themselves to stand by William
against James and James's friends, and if harm befell
William, to take signal vengeance on his murderers.
Their example was followed by the country at large, and
hundreds of thousands put their names to the associa-
tion. It was a grand outburst of loyalty, and made it
clear that the vast bulk of the people were not Jacobites.
9. Yet for the rest of his life William had an uneasy-
time in England. The Commons would have their own
way in all things, caring little how much pain their doings
gave to the king, (i) William knew that war with France
must soon break out again, and wished a good part of
the army to be kept up. But the Commons, especially
the Tories, had a horror of standing armies, and voted
that all the troops but 7,000 should be
guards sent disbanded. They went further, and said that
away, 1699. ^^ j,-^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ |^^^j. ^^ Holland his Dutch
1 See Epoch IV., p. 72.
11
!
1 699- 1 70 1 . William III. and his Parlialnents. 2 5
guards, who came with him to England, and for whom
he had a strong liking. William's feelings were deeply
hurt, and he made up his mind to leave the kingdom
for ever ; but from this purpose he was turned aside by
the wise words and firm conduct of Lord Somers, who
was then Chancellor, and would not put the Great Seal to
the paper in which William gave up the Crown. (2) In
the same way William was forced by Parliament to take
back the lands in Ireland which he had granted to some
of his friends. These lands had belonged to Irishmen
who had fought against the English and so had lost them
at the end of the Irish war. From the first. Parliament
thought that these lands should be sold to help to pay
the costs of the war ; and William had once promised not
to do anything with them without first telling Parliament.
Yet he afterwards gave them to his generals and ministers.
The man who got the largest share was a Dutch- ,v„-
. ° ° William .
man, Bentmck, Earl of Portland, WilHam's forced to
closest friend for many years. The Commons hS'^ants
were very angry, and in 1700 passed a bill for o^^^nds.
taking back these lands ; and to make sure that the
Lords and the king would not refuse the bill, they
' tacked ' it to a bill granting the king money, so as to
make one law of the two things. The will of the Com-
mons prevailed, such strength did ' the power of the
purse ' give them.
10. William and Mary had no children ; and in 1700
the young Duke of Gloucester, the only child of Anne
that lived beyond infancy, died. There was now no
hope of there being anyone to inherit the crown by the
Bill of Rights after the death of William and of Anne.
In 1701, therefore. Parliament settled the
crown on the Electress Sophia of Hanover, Settlement,
and her heirs. Sophia was one of the children ^^oi.
of that Elizabeth, daughter of James I., who in 161 3 had
IS
26
Settlement of the Constitution.
1701.
married* the Palsgrave Frederick. She was chosen to
come after WiUiam and Anne because she was the
nearest to the Stuart hne who was a Protestant. The
law that did this is called the Act of Settlement ; it gives
Queen Victoria her title to the throne. Parliament in
passing it tried to make the nation's liberties still safer.
It was now made impossible (i) for any foreigner to sit in
Parliament or to hold an office under the Crown ; (2) for
the king to go to war in defence of countries that did not
belong to England, unless Parliament gave him leave ; or
(3) to pardon anyone so that the Commons might not be
able to impeach him.
11. One clause of this law brings before our minds a
great change that had then taken place in the way of
ruling the kingdom. By ancient usage the Privy
Council was the body from which the king was bound
to seek advice in matters of State ; but of later years
the king had fallen into the habit of letting his leading
,^^^ ministers only into his secrets, and a body
Cabinet much Smaller than the Privy Council,
^"^^^ ' called the Cabal or Cabinet, was gradually
formed. But the Commons got uneasy about this new
body ; it kept its doings carefully hid from every-
one, and there was no means of finding out which
of its members advised the king to any course which the
Commons might think harmful to the country ; for the
king's ministers had now come to be answerable to Par-
liament for everything the king did. An attempt was
made in this new bill to give back to the Privy Council
all its old strength, and so check the growth of the
Cabinet. But nothing came of it ; this part of the Act of
Settlement was done away with in the next reign.
12. The Commons were growing more and more
unruly, when suddenly a foolish step taken by King
Lewis delivered William from them. In September 1701
* See Epoch V., p. 8.
1 701-2. William III. a7id his Parliainaits. ly
James II. died at St. Germains ; and Lewis took it upon
him to publicly hail James's son, James Edward, as King
■of England. This uncalled-for meddling in
their affairs greatly enraged the English ; and dfeT,^sipt.,
William seized the chance of getting rid of his ^7oi-
troublesome Parliament. He dissolved it, and called an-
other. Most of the members chosen to this one were
well-disposed to him, and wished to work heartily with him.
There was now a general eagerness for war with France;
and William set briskly about getting the nation ready.
To tell the story of this great war, one of the greatest in
our history, will be the chief task of the next book.
\
BOOK II.
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION,
CHAPTER I.
THE CAUSES OF THE WAR.
I. The War of the Spanish Succession is so called
because it was fought to decide who should succeed
Charles II. on the throne of Spain. We might War of the
think it mattered little to Englishmen whether '^P^'^"ish
*u 1 • r o • A . Succession,
the kmg of Spam was an Austrian or a French- 1702-13.
man. But the chief desire of William's heart was to see
England throwing all her strength into the struggle
against the French king's greed. To gratify this desire
he bore patiently with the unruly temper and thirst for
power of many of his Parliaments, and allowed much of
the royal authority to slip away from him. In the main
he was successful ; owing to his eftbrts England won a
place in the front rank of European Powers which she
has never since lost. William made England feel that
i
28
Settlement of the Constitution. 1698.
she was concerned in everything which concerned the
cause of hberty in Europe.
2. Moreover, England's right of settling her own affairs
without foreign meddling was at stake. Lewis XIV., as
being an absolute prince and a Roman Catholic, had a
natural feeling of enmity towards a free and Protestant
State, such as England became after 1688. He hated the
Revolution and longed to put it down. If he had been
victorious in this war, doubtless the Stuart line would
have been restored to the English throne. It must be
borne in mind that after the passing of the Act of Settle-
ment it became a necessary part of the new order of
things, that the House of Hanover should succeed Anne
in the kingship. The friends of the Revolution felt that
all would be lost if this arrangement were not carried out ;
therefore they pushed forward the war with France with
the utmost earnestness. So that in fighting to place an
Austrian prince on the Spanish throne the English were
in reality fighting for what they most cherished — national
freedom.
3. The war came about in this way. Towards the
end of the seventeenth century^, Charles II. of Spain
The was clearly drawing near his end. He had no
the^Spanbh children ; and his nearest of kin was the
crown. Dauphin of France. Next in order of kinship
came Joseph, eldest son of the Elector of Bavaria ; and
after him the Emperor Leopold.^ But the dauphin's
* Table showing the Spanish descent of the above-named persons : —
Philip III.
Philip IV.
?
Mary Anne.
Charles II. Maria Theresa= Lewis XIV. Margaret = Leopold, the Emperor.
The Dauphin. Mary Antoinette = Elector of Bavaria*
I I
Philip, Duke of Anjou. Joseph, the Electoral Prince.
1698-1700. The Cattses of the War.
29
mother and Joseph's grandmother had, when leaving
Spain, solemnly laid aside, for themselves and those who
might spring from them, all claim to the Spanish crown.
Nothing of the kind stood in the way of Leopold. It was
the belief of some, however, that no one has power, by
any words or acts, to bar his or her descendants from
anything to which they may come to have a right ; and
that, therefore, the dauphin's claim to succeed King
Charles was still a good one. Yet it was certain that,
however good his claim might be, the other European
States would not stand still and see the almost boundless
Spanish Empire— Spain, Naples, Sicily, Milan, the
Spanish Netherlands, and the Indies — go to swell the
dominions of the mightiest prince of Europe ; for the
dauphin or his heir must sooner or later become king
of France. On the other hand Lewis would be sure to
oppose with all his power the union of the Spanish and
Austrian dominions. William and Lewis at The First
first thought it possible to settle the question ^^^e^'^^^"
by a friendly arrangement. In 1698 they 1698.
made a treaty — the First Partition Treaty, as it is
<:alled— with each other. By this Joseph was to get the
kingdom of Spain, the Indies, and the Spanish Nether-
lands ; while some regions near the Pyrenees, Naples,
and Sicily, were to go to the dauphin, and Milan to the
Archduke Charles, second son of the emperor. This
treaty might have saved Europe from war ; but a few
months after it was made Joseph suddenly died, and his
^eath spoiled the plan.
4. The two kings then tried to hit upon a new plan.
Early in 1700 the Second Partition Treaty was signed.
By this the Archduke Charles was to have The Second
Spain, the Netherlands, and the Indies; t^^^J'°"
Milan — with power to exchange it for Lor- 1700.
raine— was added to the dauphin's share. But this
30 Settlement of the Constitution. 1 700-1.
making of treaties all turned out wasted labour. Before
the year was over Charles II. died, leaving by will Spain
The Duke ^nd all the countries belonging to Spain to
Ki>fgo? ^^^ D"^e of Anjou, second son of the
Spain, 1700. dauphin ; and Lewis, in utter disregard of the
treaty he had signed, accepted the bequest for his grand-
son. Anjou at once became King of Spain as Philip V.
Shortly afterwards war broke out between Lewis XIV.
and the Emperor (lyoO-
5. At first it seemed as if the King of England would
have to look on and see the great game played out with-
Th c ^^^ him. Parliament had grown angry about
mons get the Partition Treaties ; and William dared not
thf trea-°" even speak of war to it. Most of the Com-
ties, 1701. mons thought that, in making those treaties,
the King had shown small regard for English interests ;
and, moreover, it was soon found out that they had been
made in a way by which the rules of the Constitution had
been broken. Throughout his reign William was his
own minister of foreign affairs, and in arranging the
terms of the first treaty had told no one of his English
ministers anything about them. Somers, the Chancellor,
had even put the Great Seal to a paper in which blanks
were left for the names of the men who should sign for
England. These and other awkward things came out ;
Impeach- and the Commons straightway impeached
ment of the Somcrs and three other lords. The king was
vV hig °
Lords, 1701. SO disheartened by the turn things had taken
that he recognised Philip as King of Spain. He was
afraid the Commons would make him do this some time
or other. The Lords, however, were not of the same
mind as the Commons, and cunningly contrived that the
impeachment of Somers and his friends should come
to nothing. The feeling of Englishmen generally was
rather in favour of the course which William desired to
1 701-2.
TJie Causes of the War,
31
take, and soon the Commons themselves came to see
that England must shortly join in the war. Then King
James died ; and Lewis took the fatal step of putting
forward James's son as King of England. The nation at
large felt this to be a gross insult ; Tories and Whigs
called loudly for war. The new Parliament passed laws
of the utmost severity against the Jacobites, and heartily
voted large sums for the army and navy. William went
zealously to work to get the nation ready for the great
struggle.
6. But William's end was now near ; he did not even
live to see war declared. Early in 1702 he was thrown
from his horse and broke his collar-bone. He Death of
had never been a strong man ; and of late his iY'"'t"''
,,-,,, . March,
health had been growmg worse. His feeble 1702.
body had not now enough strength to bear up against the
shock. On March 8, 1702, he died at Kensington. He
was but fifty-two years old.
William was a little, meagre man, with a thin, worn-
looking face. He talked little save to his closest friends,
was seldom cheerful save in battle, had a blunt William's
way of speaking, and cared nothing for lite- character,
rature or art. But his heart was strong and tender ; he
was borne away fainting from his wife's dying bed, and
a lock of her hair was found over his heart after his
death. He had some grave faults ; but on the whole
his character was noble. He was the last of our great
kings.
CHAPTER II.
THK WAR ITSELF.
I. The Bill of Rights had settled who was to take the
crown after William's death. Anne, second daughter of
32
Settlement of the Coiistitution, 1702.
1702.
The War Itself.
K/
IZ
Anne,
Queen,
March,
1702-
August,
1714.
The great
Duke of
IMarl-
borough,
b. 1650 ;
d. 1722,
moor.^
James II., at once became queen. She was thirty-seven
years old, and was married to Prince George of Denmark ;
but she was childless, though she had borne
many children. She was dull-witted, but kind-
hearted, was easily led by anyone whom
she trusted and loved ; but nothing could
move her when her mind was made up.
For many years after her coming to the throne, almost
the whole power of the State was in the hands of John
Churchill, whom Anne made Duke of Marl-
borough. Churchill, the son of a Devonshire
gentleman, had risen to wealth and honours by
the kindness of James II., and had won fame
as a soldier in the Low Countries and at Sedge-
But in 1688 he deserted James, and did much
to make his overthrow sure. He is charged with having
been false to William also. William, however, forgave
him, took him into favour, and marked him out for high
command in the coming war. Marlborough was a
general of wonderful skill, firmness, and daring ; he had
a temper that nothing could ruffle, and a rare power of
working upon the minds of men. But he was over-fond
of heaping up riches, and is said to have cared little for
anvthing but his wife and his own greatness. This wife,
Sarah Jennings, was in many ways as remarkable as
himself. She was a woman of great force of character
and overbearing temper, but was deeply loved by her
husband. Indeed her husband owed his greatness
largely to her ; for Anne had from her early days been
ver>^ fond of Lady Marlborough, and was always ready
to do whatever she wished. That they might talk and
write to each other with greater ease Anne called her
friend Mrs. Freeman, and was in turn known to Lady
Marlborough as Mrs. Morley. The Queen gave herself
1 See Epoch v., p. 74.
I
i
up altogether to her friend's guidance ; and in this way
Marlborough became, on WiUiam's death, the most
powerful man in England.
2. Lord Godolphin, a wary and experienced statesman,
was made Lord High Treasurer, then the highest'Minister
of the Crown. Marlborough and Godolphin ^^^
were Tories, and put none but Tories into Ministry
the other important posts. But after a time GodCfphin,
a change came over their views. The Tories 1702-1710.
were lukewarm in upholding the war ; the Whio-s
warmly pressed it on ; and therefore Marlborough and
Godolphin, who were all for war, kept drawing farther
from the Tories and closer to the Whigs. Thus, as time
went on, the Tory members were every now
and then dropping off from the Ministry and dlred,^'
the Whigs were joining it, until it became ^^^^' ^702.
altogether Whig. Almost the first act of the new
Ministry was to declare war with France. Marlborough
was named Captain-General of the land forces.
3. England had never yet engaged in a war that
spread so far and wide over the earth as this one. It
was carried on at the same time in the Low
Countries, in Spain, in the Mediterranean Sea, theYow '"
and in the West Indies. Its greatest battle Countries.
was fought in Germany. But its chief scene of action
was the Spanish Netheriands— the country that is now
called Belgium— and the parts of France that lay near.
The armies there were led by Mariborough. They were
made up of men from many lands— English, Dutch,
Prussians, and Hanoverians— all of whom cheerfully
obeyed the great English general.
4. No grand deed of arms was done by Mariborough's
army for the first two years. The French stood on the
defensive j and Mariborough was much hampered by tlie
E. H. D
34
Settlement of the Constitution. 1702-04.
Dutch, who would not let him give battle when he
wished. He had to rest content with taking several
strongholds. But in 1704 the English captain struck a
mighty blow at the power of France. Finding in that
vear that the French and their allies, the Bavarians,
•< ....
were making alarming way
against
the Austrians in
South-western Germany, he marched his army from the
Battle of Rhine to the Danube, and having joined it to
Blenheim, ^^ Austrian force under Prince Eugene of
i7o5" ' Savoy, came up with the French and Bavarians
at Blenheim. There, on the banks of the Danube, was
fought the battle which has shed its chief lustre on
Marlborough's name. Tallard, the French marshal, had
about 60,000, the Englishman about 50,000 men under his
command. For a whole day the French held their
ground manfully, driving back the Allies at almost every
point. At last, in the evening, Marlborough led a ge-
neral assault along the whole line ; the French army
was cut in two, and utteriy routed. It was a crushing
defeat ; almost two-thirds of the beaten army were killed,
wounded, or made prisoners. Tallard himself fell into
Marlborough's hands. The pride of Lewis XIV. was
humbled at last.
5. Ten days before the battle of Blenheim an English
admiral gained a success which, though thought little of
at the time, proved to be of vast importance.
Early in August, Admiral Sir George Rooke,
who had been cruising along the coast of
the summer, and been able to do nothing,
few thousand seamen and marines near
Gibraltar, and took the place with the utmost ease. This
fortress was kept by the English when peace was made ;
and every attempt to wrest it from them again has utterly
failed.
6. Next year Marlborough is again found warring in
Taking of
Gibraltar,
Aug., 1704.
Spain all
landed a
1705-09.
The War Itself.
35
the Low Countries ; and, though he could get no chance
of winning a great battle, he managed to push
the French hard. But in 1706 he again over- RamUlks,
threw their armies, at Ramillies ; and nine of ^'^^^' ^7o6.1
the strongest fortresses in the Spanish Netheriands were
the fruits of the victory. Another year (1707) of com-
parative inactivity followed. Then, in 1 708, a third grand
victory was won, and the most skilfully-managed siege
of the whole war brought to a triumphant close. For the
French under the Duke of Vendome, having
laid siege to Oudenarde, Mariborough fell upon Oudlnide.
them and drove them from their position. He J^^^' '^oS.'
then drew his army round Lille, perhaps the strongest of
the strong places on the French border. The garrison
of Lille was commanded by Boufflers, the general who
had held Namur against William III. This
siege lasted more than three months, and LUiltAug.-
was watched with eager interest throughout ^^^'•> ^7o8.
Europe. Prince Eugene pushed forward the siege, while
Mariborough kept off the French army, which lay in the
neighbourhood trying hard to relieve the place. In the
end Boufflers had to yield.
7. In the campaign of 1709 the great Duke won the
last and bloodiest of his successes. The French Marshal,
Villars, had entrenched his army at Malplaquet;
and the allies had to carry by storm strongly MaipfaqLt,
fortified heights held by 90,000 stout-hearted ^^p^' ^709.
men. They carried them, but at a frightful cost— a loss of
20,000 killed and wounded. The next two campaigns
were not marked by any very striking event. But many
towns were taken, and' France itself was invaded. The
upshot of Marlborough's fighting was, that the French
were swept out of the Netheriands, their] renown in war
was lost, and their kingdom was drained of well-nigh all its
D 2
36
Settlement of the Constitntioih 1705-10.
1705-1713-
The War Itself,
37
strength. Not often has a great nation been brought so
low as France was in this war by Marlborough.
But in 1 7 12 the great soldier was disgraced;
and the Duke of Ormond was sent to take his
command. How such a thing as this came
to be done will be explained farther on. Ormond did
nothing worth mentioning here.
8. During these years the war was going on in Spain
The com-
mand taken
from Marl-
borough,
Jan. I, 1712.
also. There the Allies were not so successful, perhaps
because they had not a general like Marl-
Spain,T702- borough to lead them. In Spain an effort
'7^2. ^^.^g made to carry out directly the chief pur-
pose of the AUies— to dethrone Philip and set up the
Archduke Charles as King. And in 1705 the Archduke,
calhng himself Charles III., went to the country under
the guard of an English fleet. But most of the Spaniards
favoured the French prince ; and Charles never had a
chance of winning the crown in this way and keeping it.
It is true there were some valiant deeds done by the
English in Spain. In 1705 the Earl of Peterborough took
Barcelona with a very small force, and marched hither
and thither through the eastern provinces unchecked.
And in 1706 the Allies, under the Earl of Galway,
advanced from Portugal and entered Madrid. But
Peterborough's strange career soon came to an end; and
not only was Galway forced to leave Madrid,
but in 1707 his amiy was destroyed. Yet this Aimanza,
overthrow did not end the war in those parts. ^7°^*
In 1 710 the French were beaten in their turn ; and the
Allies a second time took possession of Madrid. Again,
however, they found it necessary to march Battles of
away from the place. As they were making Brihuega
/•I , T- , 1 1 •■ IT and Villa
for the east coast, the French, led by Ven- vidosa,
dome, overtook at Brihuega their left wing, ^^^■' ^7io-
which was English, and commanded by General Stan-
hope. Stanhope's troops were surrounded ; and after
some tough fighting had to surrender themselves pri-
soners. Next day the other Allies were more prosper-
ous at Villa Viciosa. Yet all they gained was freedom to
go on to Barcelona. This was the last contest of the war
in Spain. Already, in 1708, the English had
conquered Minorca, an island which they Utrecht,
afterwards held for seventy years. In 171 3 ^^^^"
peace was made at Utrecht.
38
Settlement of the Constitution. 1702-03.
703-05. Constitntional History during the War. 39
CHAPTER III.
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY DURING THE WAR.
1. Of Anne's reign it may be said, as a general truth^
that in it the course of things which had been set going
How Anne's Under Wilham went on without check. In
feredfrom °^^ ^^^^ °"^^' ^^^ pubhc Hfc change after
William's. William's death — there was less strife between
Parliament and the Crown, and more between Whigs and
Tories. Anne was an Englishwoman, a Stuart, and a
sound Churchw^oman. The Tories therefore trusted her
far more than they had ever trusted William, and did
not seek to weaken the royal power any further. More-
over the new settlement had seemingly been made safe ;
Anne quietly accepted the position which the Revolution
had given her, and so was allowed to enjoy a peace that
had been denied to William. There was, however, great
stir and noise in her time. Party spirit ran very high,,
and Whigs and Tories strove with each other as they had
seldom striven before.
2. The Tories were not just of the same mind as they
had been in the days of the Exclusion Bill.^ They did
not now struggle to keep the Crown powerful with the
same zeal as they had then shown. They not only
accepted the arrangement made in 1688-9, but they up-
held the authority of Parliament often with greater
earnestness than the Whigs themselves. Traces of their
old faith, it is true, might still be seen in them ; the>-
would rather have Anne than William on
the throne, because in her title there was
something of hereditary right ; and those of
them who went farthest in Toryism were apt to become
Jacobites. But they mainly showed their Torj-ism by
* See Epoch V., p. 69.
Tories and
Whigs in
Anne's
I
1
being great friends of the Church, and by disliking Dis-
senters. They wanted to have all the power in the Com-
monwealth given to Churchmen alone. The Whigs, on
the other hand, wished to see all Protestants made equal
under the law. Moreover, in Anne's reign the Whigs
were very zealous for the war from first to last ; but the
Tories both were not over-warm in its support at first
and came to dislike it very much at last.
3. The Commons in Anne's first Parliament were
mostly Tories, and in their very first session carried a
law which would have made it quite impossible for any
Dissenter to hold a post under the Crown. But the Lords
threw out this bill, for in those days most of the Lords
were Whigs. The Lords, as having so much that might be
lost by a violent change, are mostly in favour of keeping
things as they are, and accordingly were then in favour of
the Revolution Settlement, which they thought might in
the long run be upset if the Tories always had Occasional
their way. The aim of this bill was to prevent Bi'ir/ijoil^
occasional cotiformity , as the custom of taking 1703-
the Sacrament according to the Church ritual, just to fit
oneself for holding office, was called. Next year the Lords
again threw it out. From this time the Tories lost ground.
4. The war with France was a Whig war. It was
waged to carry out the plans of William, who had become
the great Whig hero, and sprang from the ThcW^higs
Revolution, which had been a triumph of Whig JJJsteJ!^
principles. Marlborough's victories, therefore, 1705-
spread a W^higgish feeling through the country ; and, in
1705 a House of Commons was chosen in which Whigs
had the mastery. What followed will show clearly how
the new way of governing was likely to work. The
Whigs were now so strong that the Ministry could not get
on without them. To win them to his side Marlborough
had to promise to get one of their leading men, Charles
40
Settlement of tJie Constitution. 1700-08.
Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, raised to some high office.
But Anne liked the Tories better than the Whigs ; she
thought she had a right to choose her own Ministers, and
for a time would not hear of a place being given to
Sunderland, though he was the husband of Marlborough's
daughter. Marlborough knew how necessary it was that
what the Whigs asked should be done, and eagerly
pressed it on. But the queen was most unwilling, and
yielded only to Marlborough's earnest prayers. In De-
cember 1706 Sunderland was made Secretary of State.
In 1708 the same struggle took place again on a
larger scale. The general election of 1708 having again
given the W^higs a majority in the Commons, the other
„, ,,. . Whicr leaders — the Whig Junto, as they were
The jNIinis- » o j ; .?
try be- called, of whom the Lords Somers and Whar-
aitogether ton wcre the chief — demanded to be taken
Whig, 1708. into the Government. Marlborough, knowing
the disHke of Anne to the Whigs, held out for a long
time against them ; but they made things so unpleasant,
and there was so much dread that they would use their
strength to work mischief to the Queen's friends, that
Anne had at last to give offices to Somers and Wharton.
Then the Ministr>^ became purely Whig.
5. The most noteworthy change of Anne's reign was
the Union of England and Scotland, the blending together
of the two kingdoms and two parliaments into
ancf Scot- the Kingdom and Parliament of Great Britain,
land, 1700. When one looks at what was then going on in
the two countries one is rather surprised that such a good
thing should have been brought about at that time. For
never since Englishmen and Scotsmen had fallen under
the sway of the same king had Scottish hearts been so
filled with rage against England as in the first few years
of the eighteenth century. England, the Scots said,
was working them great and lasting wrongs ; and they
\
/
1 700-04. Constitutional History during the War. 41
would never forgive her. There was too much reason for
what the Scots said. Many Englishmen were very selfish
and greedy, and could not bear that their kinsfolk in
Scotland and Ireland should share in the pursuits which
brought them wealth. These men, merchants of the
great seaport towns of England, had so worked upon
Parliament that heavy taxes were laid on all products of
Scotland which were carried into England. Scotsmen
were not allowed to trade with any country belonging
to England, or with England in anything but what was
grown or made in Scotland. Their anger at finding
their hands tied up by English greed was yearly growing
more bitter. In 1 699-1 700 a plan which they had tried
to carry out, for planting a trading settlement
at Darien had come to a disastrous end. Its Scheme,
failure brought ruin on a vast number of Scot- 1699-1700.
tish families. The Scots cast the blame on the English
East India Company and on King W^illiam ; and their
wrath against England rose higher than ever. After
W^illiam's death the Scottish Parliament passed an Act
ot Security, by which it was made impossible
that the same person who had already been Security,
chosen to sit on the English throne after Anne ^^°^' ^7°"^'
died should be chosen to the Scottish throne also, unless
security were given for the ^ religion, freedom, and trade '
of the Scots. This law made it possible that at Anne's
death the two kingdoms should pass to different kings.
6. To the danger arising from this state of things we
owe the Act of Union. The wiser men in England now
saw clearly that nothing short of a thorough blending of
the two peoples into one would put a stop to their quar-
relling, and, to gain this, were willing to give the Scots
all they wanted. The very last paper that William signed
was a message to his English Parliament asking it to
consider how such a union could be brought about.
■i^-^PW^^^W
42
Settleme7it of the Constitution. 1 707-1 710.
Act of
Union
passed.
In Scotland,
Jan. 1707 ;
in England,
Mar., 1707.
Parliament did look into the question, and gave the
Queen power to name men who might meet other men
sent from Scotland, and with them try to find out a way
of uniting the two countries. But the trading jealousy
of many Englishmen and the blind patriotism of many
Scotsmen made the task of arranging the terms very
hard ; and this attempt failed. The plan, however, was
not lost sight of ; some Scotsmen longed for freedom of
trade; the wisest English statesmen were afraid of Scot-
land falling again under French influence. In 1706 there
was a meeting in London of thirty-one men from each king-
dom ; and these at last found a way to a settle-
ment of the question. By the Act of Union
Scotsmen were to have the same freedom of
trade as Englishmen ; the Presbyterian Church
was secured to Scotland ; there was to be but
one Parliament for Great Britain, to which Scotland was to
send forty-five Commons and sixteen Lords. For a long
time many Scotsmen talked of this law as if it were the
ruin of their country ; but it has undoubtedly done much
good to both nations.
7. In 17 10 the Whig Ministry fell from power. It
had foolishly made the Commons impeach a noisy High
Church clergyman, called Sacheverell, who had preached
against Godolphin, and misrepresented the Revolution.
The Lords found Sacheverell guilty ; but the trial stirred
Fall of up a mighty outburst of High Church feeling
Minfit^^^"^ throughout the country. The people too were
1710. growing rather wear>' of the war, and of the
heavy taxes which they had to pay to keep it going.
Marlboroucrh also had lost the Queen's favour. His wife
was a woman of violent temper and overbearing ways,
and in her rages did not spare the Queen herself A
coldness had grown up between the two old friends. The
Duchess never tried to soothe the Queen's wounded
1 710. TJic Tory Ministry and the PeacC. 43
feelings ; and the breach between them went on widen-
ing until at last Anne had come to hate her friend as much
as she had formerly loved her. One Mrs. Masham, once
a bedchamber-woman to the Queen, had already taken
the Duchess's place in Anne's affections. The upshot of
these changes was, that in the summer of 17 10 TheHariey-
the Queen sent away her chief Whig Ministers, Mimsu"
and gave the guidance of the nation to 1710-1714
Robert Harley and Henry St. John.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TORY MINISTRY AND THE PEACE OF UTRECHT.
1. This daring act of Anne's — the turning away of
her Ministers— helps us to see plainly the working of the
altered Constitution. The Whig leaders had Party go-
been able to win office in 1708 merely because ^emment.
most of the Commons thought as they did, and were
ready to vote as they wished. The Queen had now a
strong hope that the members of the. new Parliament
would be mostly Tory ; and, relying on that hope, had
sent away her Whig Ministers and taken Tories in their
places. She was not disappointed ; most of the new
members ixjere Tories ; and she was able to keep Harley
and St. John. But it is certain that, if it had turned out
otherwise, she could not have kept these Ministers, and
would have been forced to bring back Godolphin, Somers,
and Halifax.
2. Harley, who was made in 1711 Earl of Oxford, and
St. John, who was made in 171 2 Viscount Bolingbroke,
ruled England for nearly four years. During
this time the war of parties never ceased.
The great writers of the day took part with one side or
Party strife.
44
Settlement of the Constitution . 1 7 1 1 .
the other, each doing his utmost to make people beheve
that his party was right and the other wrong. The
stoutest champion of the Tories in this way
AddLon; was Jonathan Swift, better known as Dean
Steele. Swift, because in 171 3 he became Dean of St.
Patrick's Church in Dublin. Swift had once been a
Whig, but in 17 10 had gone over to the Tories. He
wrote for the Tories with all his might ; and being the
greatest genius then living, did a great deal by his writ-
ings to spread a Tory feeling throughout the country.
The ablest writers on the Whig side were Joseph
Addison, a most graceful author and amiable man ; and
Sir Richard Steele, an honest but somewhat hot-headed
Irishman. Men had not then the same means of reading
speeches made in Parliament as they have now, for it
as very difficult to get any account of a Parliamen-
\\
tary debate, and unlawful to print it if it were got.
Yet even then it was an important thing for a states-
man to be thought well of by the people ; and the only
way he had of winning a good name was either to
write himself, or to get others to write, in favour of his
opinions.
3. The clergy and the country gentlemen were zealous
for the Tories ; the large towns and trading classes
heartily upheld the Whigs. The Tories
charged the Whigs with trying to destroy the
Church ; their cry was that the * Church was
in danger.' The Whigs charged the Tories with wishing
to undo the Act of Settlement ; their cry was that * the
Protestant succession was in danger.' Whilst Anne
lived the Tories were the stronger party, for most
Englishmen loved the Church and sent Tories to Parlia-
ment. There was, it is true, no general desire for a second
Restoration ; but the country thought there was little fear
of this, and the cry of the Whigs did not frighten them.
The Whigs
and the
lories.
peace of
Utrecht wa
made,
1711-13.
171 1 13. The Tory Ministry and the Pead'c. 45
4. But the point that Whigs and Tories fought most
about was the making of peace with France. The
Whigs wanted the war to go on until Philip ^^^ ^^^
should be driven from the throne of Spain
and King Lewis should grant all that the
Allies asked. The Tories wanted to have the
war ended at once, and were willing both to allow Philip
to stay on the Spanish throne and to let Lewis off very
easily. The Whigs said that if the Kings of France and
Spain both belonged to the same family they would
always take part with each other in wars, and it would
not be easy for the other States to hold their own against
them. The Tories said that if Charles became King of
Spain the House of Austria would be as dangerous to
the quiet'of Europe as the House of Bourbon, for in 17 11
Charles had been chosen Emperor. The Tories, too,
were against the war, because it was a Whig war, and
success in it had always given strength to the W^higs.
They resolved, therefore, to have peace. But they went
about getting it in a very bad way. Some years before
Lewis had become so humble from the many beatings
his armies had got that he offered not only to cease help-
ing his grandson, but also to supply the Allies with money
to wage war against him. These offers had not satisfied
the Allies ; the war had gone on, and many more losses
had befallen Lewis in it. But now Harley and St. John
secretly sent a messenger to Lewis to ask if he would
agree to a peace. Peace was the thing that Lewis longed
for most ; but finding that the English Ministers also were
so eager for it, he did not now offer to yield what before
he had been willing to yield. His grandson, he now said,
must be left on the Spanish throne. There was much
stealthy going to and fro of messengers between England
and France ; and at length the rulers of the two nations
came to an understanding with each other. But not a
e
46
Settlement of the Constitution.
1713-^4.
word of these doings was told to the Dutch or the
Emperor, though as the alhes of England they had a
right to know everything that was going on. And when
at last the English Ministers did tell the Dutch, they
showed them a different treaty from the one that had
been drawn up by them and Lewis. In 17 12 they took
away the command of the army from Marlborough,
sfiparated the English army from the Allies, and privately
settled with Lewis a plan for carrying on the war that year.
5. Next year the Peace they so wished for was signed
at Utrecht. Philip was to keep the Spanish throne, but
Terms of the was to swear that he gave up all claim ever to
utrech°^ become King of France. Lewis XIV. pledged
1713- ' himself to have nothing more to do with
James Edward, now known in England as the Pretender,
and to recognise the Protestant succession to the English
Crown. England was to have Gibraltar, Minorca, and
Newfoundland, and trading rights with the Spanish
settlements. The Dutch were given a strong line of
fortresses to guard their border ; and the House of
Austria got the Spanish Netherlands and Naples. This
has been called ' the shameful Peace of Utrecht,' partly
because of the way in which it was made, and partly
because nothing was done in it to save the Catalans from
the vengeance of Philip, though these had risen in arms
at the bidding of the Allies.
6. Anne lived little more than a year longer. This
was a very anxious time for Englishmen. The Queen's
Th 1 health was bad. Oxford and Bolingbroke
year of were thought to be planning to overthrow
Veign,^ the Act of Settlement and bring in the Pre-
1713-14- tender. The Jacobites were believed to be
busy laying plots for having James Edward made King
when Anne died. The Tories had seemingly the greater
number of the people on their side, for in 1713 a new
1
4
1 714. The Toiy Ministry and the Peace. ' 47
Parliament was chosen, in which most of the Commons
were again Tories. But one thing crippled the strength
of their party very much— their chief men, Oxford and
Bolingbroke, had come to hate each other, and very often
had angry quarrels. In July 17 14 Bolingbroke con-
trived to poison the Queen's mind against his rival, and
Oxford was turned out of office. But it was
too'late for Bolingbroke to gain anything by dSsTAugu"t
the change ; three days later Anne died. The '' ^^h-
day before her death she had named the Duke of
Shrewsbury, a nobleman who had been active in brino--
ing about the Revolution, Lord High Treasurer. Shrews-
bury was a Whig ; and his appointment was a kind of
pledge that plots to bring back the Pretender, if there
were such, would be crushed.
BOOK IIL
ENGLAND UNDER THE RULE OE THE
GREAT FA ML LIES.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST YEARS OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.
I. The Electress Sophia had died two months before
Queen Anne ; and the right of succession to the English
Crown had then passed to her son, George, Elector of
Hanover. Accordingly on August i, 17 14,
George became King of England as George 1. Kingf^
Much fear had been felt throughout the countr>^ 1714-27.
that the Jacobites would try to hinder his coming to the
If
48 Settlement of the Constitution. 1714-15-
throne ; but it turned out quite othenvise— no one dared
even to raise his voice for the Pretender. Indeed, most
people showed great joy when they heard the new king
proclaimed. In foreign lands also George was looked
upon as the true King of England ; even Lewis of France
kept the promise that he had made in the Treaty of
Utrecht.
2. George came to England about seven weeks after
Anne's death. As soon as he came the Tory Ministers
Whig were sent away, and their places given to
Ministry Whigs. For George did not try, like William,
^x^^- ' to allow each party a share in governing ; he
thought that the Whigs, who had always been in favour
of his title, were likely to be more faithful to him than
the Tories. Of course, if the Commons had wished very
much that the Ministers should be Tories, they would
have made the King take Tories. But the new House of
Commons, which was chosen a few months afterwards,
had many more Whigs than Tories, and the King was
able to keep the Ministers he liked. The foremost man
in the new Ministry was Charles, Lord Townshend ; but
General Stanhop j and Robert Walpole were also very
powerful members of it. W^alpole had rare skill in
finding out the best way of settling questions about
money, and thus made himself very useful to his party.
3. In 17 1 5 the quiet of the land was broken in two
ways. First, the new Ministers were so angry at what
had been done during the last four years of
Iiiniifr^ Anne's reign that they stirred up Parliament
attacked. .^o take Steps to punish the fallen leaders
of the Tories. They tried to make out that Oxford,
Bolingbroke, and Ormond had been guilty of treason in
yielding up to Lewis in the late war more places than
they need have done. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to
France ; but Oxford was not easily frightened, and stayed
1715. First Years of House of Hanover. 49
at home. They were all impeached ; and bills of at-
tainder were also passed against Bolingbroke and
Ormond. Oxford was sent to the Tower, where he lay
for two years. In 171 7 he was brought to trial ; but in
the meantime Walpole had fallen out with the other
leading Whigs and lost office ; and now, to spite his old
friends, he cunningly contrived that the Commons should
not come fon^'ard to prove the charges they made against
Oxford. The Lords, therefore, voted that Oxford was
not guilty. Bolingbroke, soon after reaching France
openly joined the Pretender, but in a short time gave up
his cause as hopeless ; and in 1723 he was allowed to
come back to England. But Ormond never came back ;
he died abroad in 1745.
4. Secondly, there were Jacobite risings both in Scot-
land and in England. Early in September John Erskine
Earl of Mar— who some years before had been The jaco- '
a Whig and helped to bring about the Union ^'^^^ take
—raised the standard of rebellion in Braemar, 7^^^s^^'
and in a short time found himself in command of a large
Highland army. But Mar was very slow in his move-
ments, and lingered for six weeks in Perth. The Duke
of Arg>4e, famous as both a warrior and a statesman, was
sent from London to deal with this danger ; and goino-
to Stirlmg, used the time which Mar was wastino- in
gathermg round him soldiers and loval Lowlanders. "
While things stood thus in the far north a few hundred
Jacobites took up arms in Northumberland under Mr
Forster and Lord Denventwater. Joining with some
Southern Scots raised by Lord Kenmure, and some
Highlanders whom Mar had sent to their aid, they
marched to Preston, in Lancashire.
The fate of the two risings was settled on the same
day. At Preston the English Jacobites and their Scottish
allies had to give themselves up to a small body of
E.H. E
i..^.m^.,^, ■— -^ i fti P-. '■ f ,
50
Settlement of the Constitution. 171 5-16.
Affair of
Preston,
1715.
Fi?ht at
Sheriffmuir,
1715-
Scotland.
soldiers under General Carpenter, At Sheriffhiuir, about
eight miles north of StirHng, the Highlanders, whom
Mar had put in motion at last, met Argyle's
little army in battle, and, though not utterly
beaten, were forced to fall back to Perth.
There Mar's army soon dwindled to a mere
handful of men. Just when things seemed
at the worst the Pretender himself landed in
But he altogether lacked the daring and
high spirit needful to the cause at the time ; and his
presence at Perth did not even delay the end, which
was now sure. Late in January 1716 Argyle's troops
started from Stirling northwards ; and the small High-
land force broke up from Perth and went to Montrose.
Thence James Edward and Mar slipped away unnoticed,
and sailed to France ; and the Highlanders scampered
oft to their several homes. Of the rebels that were taken
prisoners about forty were tried and put to death ; and
many were sent beyond the seas. Derwentwater and
Kenmure were beheaded ; the other leaders of rank
either were forgiven or escaped from prison.
5. These risings were followed by an important
change in an important law. The people were in a rest-
less state ; and it was feared that trouble might
Act passed, befal the country if a new Parliament were
'7' 6. chosen which would be unfavourable to the
Ministry. A bill was therefore passed to enable the King
to keep the same Parliament for seven years ; and in
passing it care was taken that it should apply to the Par-
liament that then was, which thus might last till 1722.
This bill, which is called the Septennial Act, is in force
still.
6. The Whigs now became stronger than ever. But
shortly afterwards Townshend and Stanhope quarrelled
upon a grave question of foreign policy ; and a split took
^
I
1717. First Years of House of Hanover, 5 i
place in the Whig party which weakened it much for
a time. Townshend and Walpole not only
ceased to be Ministers, but also did their ScMsm!"^
utmost to thwart Stanhope and Sunderland, '717-
Avho now held the first place in the King's counsels.
The question about which the Whig leaders fell out
was the right way of forming the Triple Alliance. This
treaty, which England, France, and Holland
made with one another in 1716-17, gave Imancef'^
England great power abroad, and did much ^716-17.'
to strengthen the hold of the Hanoverian family on the
English Crown. It seems strange to find the rulers of
England and France, who had lately been such deadly
foes, now linked together in a close friendship. But each
liad an interest in making a friend of the other. In
France Lewis XIV. had died ; his great-grandson, a mere
child, had become King ; and the Duke of Orleans, who
was next heir to the crown if the King of Spain should
h)e true to the pledge he had taken by the Treaty of
Utrecht, held the Regency. But the Duke feared that
the Spanish king would not keep his promise, and
thought it would be a good thing to have England on his
side, to help him if the boy-king died. In England,
Stanhope felt that France was the only foreign state that
could give any real aid to the Pretender, and thought it
would be a good thing if France could be brought to take
part with the Hanoverian family. Thus it came about
that an alliance was made between the two countries, by
which their rulers agreed to stand by each other in any
troubles that might arise. The Dutch also afterwards
signed this treaty (January 1717).
7. This alliance gave England and France a proud
position in Europe. It was now the aim of Stanhope and
Orleans to make the other nations abide by the terms of
the Peace of Utrecht. They would not let the quiet of
£2
Whig
Schism
ends, 1720.
' ^2 Settlement of the Ccmstitution. 171S-21.
Europe be broken by any country. In 1718 the Empero
Charles joined the Alliance, for the King of Spain wanted
to take Sicily from him, and sent an army thither for the
purpose. Thereupon an English fleet under Sir George
Cap? °^ ^^'"^ attacked the Spanish near Cape Passaro,
Passaro, ^"^ ^^^at it thoroughly. Next year (17 19),
'718. French and English armies began to make
war in the North of Spain, and took some strong places
Then King Philip yielded, and consented to a peace in
which he gave up everything that he had laid claim to
(1720). From these things we see how mightv Encrland
nad become.
8. For a time all went well at home also. In 1720
Stanhope made up his quarrel with Townshend and
Walpole, and the Whigs became a united
party once more. For Walpole had shown
how dangerous he might be, by causing the
Commons to throw out the Peerage Bill, which Stanhope
wished to see passed. This was a bill for taking away
from the King the power of making any more peers than
SIX over the number that then was. Townshend and
Walpole again became Ministers. But soon
after their return to office there came a
time of great distress for many people. Some
years earlier a company had been founded
for trading with the South Seas. It grew and
prospered ; it often had dealings with the
Government, nnd in 1720 its shares had risen to ten times
their original value. An eager desire to get rich very
fast then spread throughout the countr>' ; a great many
other companies were set up ; and men bought shares
in these greedily and thoughtlessly. Soon a change of
feeling came ; men got frightened about the money they
had laid out in this way, and all tried at once to sell
their shares, but no one was willing to buy them. Hence
The Peer-
age Bill,
1719.
The
Sea
Bubble.'
South
■""t^frmwT[r"i i iri-r -i r i . ':
\
t
1722. First Years of House of Hanover. 53
not only did the new companies fail, but the South Sea
shares also fell very low. A loud cry of distress was
raised by those who had lost their money ; and all men
were deeply enraged when they heard that some of the
Ministers had taken bribes from the South Sea Company
In the midst of this trouble Stanhope suddenly
died. It was thought that Walpole was the FtSho^.
only man who knew how to help the people '^^''
in this misfortune ; so he was made Chancellor of the
Exchequer. He carried laws through Parliament which
did much to calm men's minds and revive their faith
in one another's honesty. The nation then saw that
^ alpole was the ablest man the King had ; and upon
the death of Sunderland, in 1722, Walpole became
Prime Minister.
CHAPTER II.
THE MINISTRY OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
I. Robert Walpole was a Norfolk squire of good
family, who had gained sound judgment and rare skill in
the conduct of affairs. He was clear-headed Robert
and practical, and was just the man that Encr- Walpole .-
land wanted at this time. A calm had fot d." %ti
lowed the great storms caused by the Revolution, and
the country felt a general longing for a little rest. Now,
VV alpole wished above all things to give the
nation rest. He tried with all his might to c'hS/
l^eep England from going to war, and to help ^"^ po^'^^y-
her to make herself rich and prosperous. But he never
thought of doing great deeds, of doing away with unjust
laws and getting just ones made, of setting right some of
54
Settlemaii of the ConstitiUion. 1 722,
the many evil things that then were, or of helping men
to grow wiser and better. Indeed, he believed that most
men neither were, nor could be made, good ; his opinion
of men was so low that he thought they would do any-
thing for money. * Every man has his price,' he said.
There was little in him to love or respect. But he had
much good sense, and knew well how to work on men's
minds. It was not a time for carr)'ing out great plans ;
the people were not in a humour for them, and were quite
content to be ruled by Walpole. And they were right ;
for on the whole things went well with England during
the twenty years that Walpole was Prime Minister.
2. Perhaps Walpole would not have been so long at
the head of affairs but for the cunning way in which he
The Cpnsti- managed the Commons. We have seen how
ef lueenth^ ncccssary it was for the King or his chief
century. Minister to get most of the members of the
Lower House to give him their votes. W^alpole, partly
because the state of things favoured him, and partly
because he was ver\' clever in managing public assem-
blies, got members to vote with him better than any
minister who had lived before him. For the ways in
which men gained seats in Parliament were very different
then from what they are now. Many of the towns that
had the right of sending representatives were mere vil-
lages ; and in many others, though they were larger, there
were only very few people who had a vote. It had there-
fore come to pass that the noblemen or gentlemen who
owned the lands on which these towns stood
ti^nTo""" could have whatever members they liked
roughs.' chosen for these places. Besides, the great
landowners had often such influence in the counties that
the voters in these were willing to please their landlords
or noble neighbours by voting for the persons whom they
favoured. There was also a class of boroughs, chiefly
1722. The Ministry of Sir Robert Walpole. 55
seaports, which were quite ready to give their votes to
whomsoever the King or his Ministers desired. It is
clear, then, that most of the Commons were not represen-
tatives of the \jeople, but of the King's Ministers and other
great men of the kingdom.
3. In this way it came about that the Revolution, in
making the House of Commons the strongest thing in
the State, gave the leading part in ruHng the _, „
1 he l\.evo-
nation to a number of great families. These Uition
are known in history as the Revolution /ami- f^'^'^i^^-
lies^ ox great Whig houses^ for most of them belonged to
the Whig party. For a long time it would have been
almost impossible to carry on the Government without
the active support of a good number of these houses ;
and their support could be gained only by giving the chief
men among them a large share in governing. It is true
that the King had still some power ; he could give away
posts of great dignity and value in Church and State,
pensions, peerages, and other honours that many men
were glad to have. But the first two kings of the line of
Hanover were strangers ; neither of them knew much of
English ways or English feeling, and did not care to take
any trouble to keep up the king's power. Accordingly
the heads of the great houses generally had their own
way. We shall see that the third king of the line did
make a great effort to win back to the Crown the autho-
rity it had lost, and succeeded too.
4. For twenty years Sir Robert Walpole was able by
wise management to keep on his side iDoth most of the
Whig Houses and the king, and thus to get Walpoie's
the Commons to vote in the way he wished menrof the
on every question that came before them. Commons.
Moreover, he is believed to have paid away great sums
of money in bribing Members. He was not the first to
use this means of gaining votes ; but he is said to have
56
Settlement of tJie Constitution. 1722-24.
used it much more than any other minister ever did. It
was begun in Charles II/s reign, and first became com-
mon in WilHam III/s time, when the good-will of the
Lower House was seen to be so needful to the King's
Ministers.
5. But we must not think that the King's Ministers
need pay no heed to the wishes of the people. Walpole
The people himself was more than once forced to give up
cl*Iif L his own wull and do what the nation bade him,
count. even when Parliament would have cheerfully
agreed to the course he wanted to take. Only the
people had to speak out very strongly, and show that
they were really in earnest, and ivoiild have the matter
settled in the way they thought right. They were sel-
dom, however, very much in earnest then about anything ;
for a time they cared very little how things went on in
the State.
6. Few ver>' noteworthy things happened while
Walpole ruled England. So long as George I. lived
this Minister ran little risk of losing his place, and was
able to deal in a high-handed way with each question as
it arose. In 1722 the Jacobites tried to make themselves
troublesome, but failed ; and next year their leader,
Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, was banished for life
by Act of Parliament. In 1724 the English settlers in
Wood's Ireland flew into a great rage because Walpole
halfpence, began to issue among them a new supply of
halfpence and farthings, made by William
Wood, an English ironmaster. They said that these
coins were far below the value of similar coins in Eng-
land, and that they were issued only to enrich Wood and
some worthless people about the English Court. Dean
Swift, who owed Walpole a grudge, wrote with great
force against this coinage, and so worked upon the minds
of his countrymen that they would not receive it on any
\
I
1 724-33- T/ie Ministry of Sir Robert Walpole. 5 7
terms. Walpole, powerful as he was, had to allow the
coinage to be withdrawn. Then in 1725 Spain, wishing
to get back Gibraltar, made an alliance with Another
Austria, and went to war with England. But s^ain^^^
none of these things shook Walpole's hold on 1725-27-
power in the least. So quiet had things become that in
the session of 1724 there was but one division in the
Commons.
7. In June 1727 the reign of George I. suddenly
ended. He had gone to visit his German subjects, and
was on his way to Osnabruck, when apoplexy
seized him, and he died in his carriage. George°l.,
George I. was an upright man, who sought to i"'^^ ^727-
deal justly with all men, and was much loved King, 1727-
in Hanover. But he was silent, awkward, and ^^
cold in his manner, and was little liked in England.
His son at once became King as George II. The new
king at first thought of sending W^alpole away, but in a
few days he changed his mind and kept him in office.
8. England and France were still fast friends ; for
Walpole was bent on keeping the country out of war, and
above all out of a war with France. This, he
knew, was the only nation that could help the wfth"^^^'^
Pretender in a way that would make him really France,
dangerous ; without aid from France the Jacobites were
harmless, and could do little mischief. For many years,
therefore, the Pretender, owing to Walpole's wisdom, was
unable to move ; and thus the new line of kings had time
to strengthen themselves on the throne.
9. But Walpole failed in one thing which he had set
his heart on getting done. In 1733 he brought a bill into
Parliament for levying the duties on certain
goods, tobacco being the first, not as customs scheme,*^^^^
—which are paid at the seaports, when the ^733-
goods are brought into the country — but as excise, which
58
Settlement of t/ie Constitution, 1733-39.
Walpole's
jealousy of
able men.
his will,
doincfs.
is paid when the goods are sent throughout the country.
He said that it did not cost so much to raise an excise,
that men could not keep back or steal part of it so easily,
and that thus more money would come into the treasury,
while the people paid just the same. But most English
folk then hated the excise ; the very word put them in an
ill-humour. A loud outcry against Walpole's plan went
up from all parts of the country ; and Walpole, much
against his will, gave it up.
10. But this did not weaken Walpole ; both King and
Parliament still upheld him, and for a while longer the
people also rested contentedly under his rule.
Year after year passed, leaving Walpole still
at the head of affairs, as strong as ever to work
But he had made one great mistake in his
He had always been jealous of able men, and
had driven away most of those who had been in office
with him. There was hardly one man of merit in his
Government whom he did not get rid of at some time
or other. Even Townshend had to resign his place. This
unwise conduct hurt Walpole in two ways : it chased
away from his side the men who were best fitted
to help him in the hour of need, and it sent them
to join the ranks of his foes. Thereupon this band of
The foes, who called themselves the Patriots^ went
Patriots. Qj^ steadily growing until nearly every able
statesman belonged to it. Its leader in the Commons
was William Pulteney, a brilliant speaker, who had once
been Walpole's trustiest friend. But the man among the
Patriots who had the greatest gifts of mind and noblest
character was a young man, William Pitt, who first
made himself known by his fiery speeches in Parliament
against Walpole. Seldom has a Minister had so many
great men arrayed against him.
11. Yet for many years Walpole held his ground in
1739. TJie Ministry of Sir Robert Walpole. 59
spite of them all. They brought many charges against
him. They said that, to please the King, he waipole
took more pain s about H anover than England ; ^^^ ^^^ f°«s.
that he was tamely letting Spain trample upon the honour
and the interests of England ; that he was destroying the
manly tone and honesty of the nation by his wicked arts,
bribery and corruption. On these points they assailed
him again and again, but for a time without success.
Single-handed Walpole withstood them, and beat them
in every division. Indeed, once (1739) they got so dis-
heartened that they left Parliament altogether. At last
a great longing for a war with Spain seized upon the
people ; and the Patriots turned this into a means of
overthrowing their great enemy.
12. At this time fresh life was given in England to
the old hatred of the Spaniards by the cruelties which
English seamen were said to be suffering at Troubles
Spanish hands in the Southern Seas. Spain did ^'^^^ Spain,
not like that any country but herself should trade with her
colonies in America, and very unwillingly allowed a single
English ship to carry goods to them once a year. But
the English found the traffic profitable, and in one way or
another contrived to send to Spanish America far more
goods than one ship could carry. For a time the Spaniards
took little heed of these things ; but in 1733 their King
secretly made an alliance, called a Family Compact, with
the French King, and after this the American coasts were
more closely watched. English ships that sailed or were
driven by opposing winds into their seas were boarded
and searched by Spanish officials, who often did their
duty very roughly. One of them even tore off the ear of
Robert Jenkins, the master of a Jamaica trading sloop.
Hence the war that these doings led to is
' The Jen-
sometimes known as ' the Jenkins' Ear War.' kms' Ear
The English grew more and more angry as ^^^'
they heard of these things, and at last began to call
6o
Settlement of the Constitution.
1739-44-
loudly for war with Spain. Walpole tried eagerly to pre-
vent an outbreak of war ; but his efforts failed. The
English were bent on punishing Spain for the many
wrongs they thought she had done them. Walpole,
much against his will, had to go to war (1739). Yet the
English arms did not prosper. Though Vernon took
Portobello in 1739, the Spaniards m 1741 beat back from
Carthagena with great loss a large force that Walpole
had sent to take it. Walpole got the blame of every
failure ; the Patriots grew ever louder and fiercer in call-
ing him the cause of all the nation's troubles. Still he
Fall of Wal- ^^^^^^^ doggedly for his place. But the General
pole, Feb. Election of 1742 gave the Patriots a small
^'^^'^- majority in the Commons, and Walpole was
forced to resign. He was at the same time made Earl
of Orford.
13. The war with Spain went on until 1748; but nothing
further that was striking happened in it except Commodore
Anson's great voyage round the world. In September
1 740 Anson had been sent with a squadron to do all the
Anson's damage he could to the Spaniards along the
voyage, westeru coast of South America. He was away
1740-44- almost four years, during which he met with
many wonderful adventures. In a storm he lost, or was
separated from, all his ships but two ; but with these he
seized many ships and took the town of Paita, in Peru.
In crossing the Pacific he burned one of his ships. With
the other he fought and took a great Manilla galleon near
the Philippine Islands. In June 1744 he reached home.
1
1742-44. 61
CHAPTER III.
THE PELHAMS.
1. The Ministry that followed Walpole's was not alto-
gether made up of new men ; many of those who held the
smaller places stayed in office after the fall of xhe new
their leader. In those days the Ministers did Ministry.
not form a close and united body, as they do now. Each
sometimes took a course of his own apart from the rest ;
so that a change of Ministry often meant little more than
a change of leaders. The man who now took the first
place in guiding the counsels of the King was John, Lord
Carteret ; but Lord Chancellor Hardwicke and the Pel-
hams, who stayed with Walpole to the last, were still very
powerful. Indeed, only a few of Walpole's foes were
taken into the new Cabinet. There was much discontent
at this, and the Ministry was not at first very strong in
the Commons.
2. Carteret was much liked by George II. He had
good parts, was gay and genial in society, but over-fond
of strong drink. He was the only Minister who knew
German and the right way of dealing with German States.
He therefore led the nation into a closer connexion with
German affairs than pleased either his brother
Ministers or the Commons. Without asking power?' '"
their advice he made treaties, and pledged ^742-44-
the Eng'lish people to give away large sums of money.
. So whilst he rose ever higher in the King's favour he
became unpopular. In November 1744 the Pelhams
and their friends told the King plainly that
they and Carteret— now Earl Granville by his cJneret,
mother's death — could not any longer work ^744-
together, and that either he or they must give up office.
The King would gladly have kept Granville rather than
62
Settlement of the Constitution. 1744-46.
the Pelhams ; but the Pelhams had many more followers
in the Commons than their rival, and the King had to
send away the Minister he liked best. For without a
majority in the Commons no Minister could now get on.
3. The Pelhams were the Duke of Newcastle and his
younger brother, Henry. The Duke was a fussy man,
The Pel- who bustled about in a way that made people
Jower!" laugh. He had much knowledge of business,
1744-54- but little ability. Henry Pelham was in
every way superior to his brother, though his powers
of mind were not great. He did not shine either as a
speaker or as a ruler ; but he was hard-working, sensible,
and clearheaded ; and his training under Walpole had
given him some skill in managing affairs. For these
reasons he was in 1744 placed at the head of the Ministry.
This has been called the broad-bottom Ministry^ from
the number of men of various parties who belonged to it.
Even Tories held places in it. But its chief strength lay
in the support of the great Whig houses, many of whose
heads were members of it. On one point only did George
II. stand firm: he would not take Pitt into his service,
as the Pelhams wished. For Pitt had in his speeches
spoken of Hanover in a way that had deeply hurt the
King. Yet in little more than a year George had to yield
on this point also. In February 1746 the Ministers,
Ministerial knowing that the King was listening in private
crisis of to GranviUe's advice, and was therefore not
June 1746. trusting them, suddenly gave up their places
in a body. Granville then tried to get together a Ministry
of his own, but failed ; and the King had to take back the
Pelhams on their own terms. One of these was that Pitt
. should have a place ; and he was appointed,
Pittin office. r ^ ^ • r ^ ■, \
iirst to a mmor post, afterwards to that of
Paymaster of the Forces. The great families could now
make the King do what he most disliked.
I
1740-43.
T/ie Pelhams.
63
\
J
J
I
4. By this time England had been drawn into a war
with France. It is usually called the War of the Austrian
Succession. England joined in it as the ally The War of
of Maria Theresa, whose title to the ancestral the Austrian
J . . f. . ' , buccession,
dominions of her father, the Emperor Charles 1740-48.
VI., was disputed by Bavaria, France, Prussia, and other
States. Charles, having no son, had been eager that his
daughter should succeed to the rule of the lands that had
come to him by inheritance ; and, to make her succession
sure, had got nearly all the European Powers to sign a
paper called the Pragmatic Sanctioji^ by which they
bound themselves to uphold her claim. But when he
died (1740) the Elector of Bavaria said that by right the
Austrian lands ought to come to him, and set about con-
quering them ; whilst Frederick II., the young King of
Prussia, laid hold of Silesia ; and France, wishing to
weaken Germany, sent two armies across the Rhine to
aid Bavaria. Only England and Holland loyally stood
by their promises.
In 1743 a united force of British and Hanoverians,
40,000 strong, marched to Aschaffenburg, on the river
Main. King George himself came and took
the command. W^hilst they lay at this place, Dmingln,
Noailles, the French general, blocked them J""^ 1743.'
up so closely that they could move neither forward nor
backward without fighting a battle under great disad-
vantages. At last their supply of food became scanty,
and one morning, late in June, they started back along
the right bank of the Main, hoping to force their way to
Hanau, where their bread-stores were. As they drew near
to Dettingen they found that there was a French force
posted right in front of them on the far side of some
marshy ground. Whilst they were putting themselves in
battle-array the leader of this French force, Grammont
getting impatient, led his men across the marshy ground
64
Settlcmcfit of the Constitution, 1743-45.
and charged down on the Allies with great swiftness. Their
first three lines were broken through ; but the fourth held
its ground, and poured such a steady musketr>' fire into
the ranks of the French that they had to fall back in
disorder. Then the Allies pushed boldly on, and routed
and drove the French from the field. The victors then
pursued their march to Hanau. The Allies gained nothing
but glor>^ from the fight of Dettingen. Never since has
an English king led an army in battle.
5. As yet the two nations were not at war ; England
merely fought as the friend of Maria Theresa, France as
the friend of the Bavarian Elector, who had been chosen
Emperor the year before. But in 1 744 the French took
up the Stuart cause and tried to land 15,000 men on the
English coast. A storm scattered the fleet that carried
Battle of ^^^"^ ' ^^^ ^ declaration of war followed. This
Fontenoy, War was waged chiefly in Flanders, where the
May, 1745. Allies were led by King George's younger
son, the Duke of Cumberland. Its greatest battle was
fought at Fontenoy in May 1745. Cumberland had ad-
vanced with 50,000 British, Dutch, and Austrians, ta
drive the French besieging army from before Tournay.
Prince Maurice of Saxony, the French leader, had taken
his stand near Fontenoy, and there thrown up strong
defences. Cumberland, then a hot-headed youth, made
his troops attack these ; but they were beaten back at all
points. Angry at this repulse, the English general sent a
column of British Infantry, 16,000 strong, straight upon
the French position. This fearless body of men marched
steadily whither they had been sent, and, getting inside
the French lines, for a time swept from their path every
force that strove to check their course. But they were
not backed up as they ought to have been, and they had
to march back the way they came, beaten but not dis-
graced. Then Cumberland led off his army, and
I
1745.
The Pelhams,
65
Tournay fell. Shortly afterwards the Duke was called
back to England to face danger nearer home.
6. The war with France had given fresh life to the
dying Jacobite cause. And there had lately come for-
ward as the leader of this cause a high-
spirited young prince, of handsome person and EdwlS
winning manners, who believed it was his ^^"^"
fate to win back the kingdoms to his house. Scotland,
This was Charles Edward, sometimes named '^'^^'
the Young Chevalier, the elder of the two sons of James
Edward. Towards the end of July 1745 he came with
only seven companions to the west coast of Inverness-shire
and sought to stir up the Highlanders to take up arms in
his father's behalf. The Highland chiefs doubted at first,
but many of them were won over by Charles's eager
words. Gathering at Glenfinnan, the clans swept round
by Corryarrick and Blair Athol to Perth. Sir John Cope
had gone northwards with a small force to meet them
but on reaching Corryarrick had become afraid, and
turned aside to Inverness. The road to the Lowlands
then lay open, and Charles promptly took it. In the
third week of September the Highlanders
entered Edinburgh. Three days later the pSon^
Prince led them westwards to meet Cope's ^^"''' '745.
army, which had sailed to Dunbar. They found it near
Preston Pans, and in a single rush almost destroyed
it.
Returning to Edinburgh, Charles stayed there for
six weeks, and then started for England. He had
now about 6,000 men under his command.
Taking the Western road, his troops went t?and from
steadily on until they entered Derby. There q^*"^/'
they paused ; and though Charles was himself December,
full of hope and burned to push on to London, ^^"^^^
the chiefs resolved to go back to Scotland. Few English
E.H. F
66 Settlenmit of the Constitution, 1746.
had joined them ; and they were disheartened. On their
way back they beat a body of soldiers that overtook them
at Chfton, in Cumberland. On the day before Christmas
Fight of they marched into Glasgow. They then laid
ja^nuary, siege to Stirling, but could not take it. But
1746. at Falkirk Muir they overcame General
>
•1746-54.
The Pelhams.
67
Hawley, who had been sent with 8,000 men to relieve
Stirling. Cumberland himself then took the command
of the royal troops ; -and the Highlanders fell back to
Inverness. Next spring the Duke went in search of
them, and found them at Culloden Field, near Inverness
At Culloden the royal troops were handled
so well that the wildest rushes of the High- cSbden
landers could not break their firm array AprU, ly^e.
The mountaineers, thus baffled, soon scattered before the
murderous volleys of musketry, and made for their several
homes. Thus ended the last Jacobite rising. The poor
Highlanders were most cruelly treated by the victorious
soldiers. For five months Charles wandered about
through the Highlands and Western isles, suffering many
hardships and meeting with very romantic adventures
But in September he got off safe to France. Of his fol'
lowers the Lords Lovat, Kilmarnock, and Balmerinoch
were beheaded ; nearly a hundred others were also
executed. A law was then made doing away with the
special authority of the Highland chieftains over their
clans.
7. The war with France still went on ; but in
Flanders the Allies were generally unsuccessful. As a
set-off to their failures by land the British Pe.ce of
gained two victories at sea. At length in 1748 A^^'^-
peace was made with France and Spain at ^'X"''
Aix-la-Chapelle. None of the nations won anything in
this war, except Prussia, which was allowed to keep Silesia
8. Six years of unbroken quiet at home and abroad
followed. In 1754 Henry Pelham died, and the strife
of statesmen began anew. At the same time Death of
things were fast ripening towards the outbreak ^^^'^
of one of the most important wars in history fzt'"'
-the Seven Years' War, as it afterwards came to be
named.
F 2
68
BOOK IV.
THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR,
CHAPTER I.
HOW THE WAR WAS BROUGHT ABOUT.
I. After the death of Henry Pelham it was not easy
to form a ministry that could both do the work of govern-
Newcastie's ^"^^"^ ^"^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^'^^ thought needful
iviinistry, through the House of Commons. Newcastle
1754-56. ^Q^j, ^j^g ^j.gj. pi^^g . j^^^ j^^ wanted a man to
lead the Commons. It was not easy to get such a man ;
Pitt was too high-minded, and was, moreover, disliked
by the King. Henry Fox, a clever man, who knew well
how to humour the Lower House, and had few scruples,
was willing to take the post ; but Newcastle wanted ta
keep all the power to himself; and it was some time
Newcastle's bcforc he could make his bargain with Fox.
troubles. Even after he got Fox troubles came thick
upon Newcastle. The nation kept drifting into war with
France ; and the Duke, looking about for alhes, wanted
to draw closer to Austria, which had secretly entered into
a friendship with France. Then the French, without
declaring war, besieged St. Philip's, in Minorca ; and
Admiral Byng, who had been sent with a fleet to bring
succour to the place, came away without doing anything.
The people grew very angry ; and men began to think
more and more of Pitt as the only man who could save
Newcastle ^^ nation. Newcastle offered to have Eyng
resjgn hanged — indeed, next year Byng was tried
by court-martial and shot— but the people
were still uneasy and fretful. Then Fox left Newcastle,
and soon his Ministry broke up.
^756-57- The Seven Years' War,
69
Pitt Secre-
tary of
State,
November,
1756— April,
1757.
2. By this time war with France had come in earnest,
and the voice of the people called loudly for Pitt as the
only man fit to have the management of it.
Thereupon the King yielded ; and a Ministry
was formed in which the Duke of Devonshire,
a man of spotless honour, was Prime Minister,
and Pitt Secretary of State. In a few months,
however, the King— in whose mind the hard things that
Pitt had once said about Hanover still rankled— took
away his office from Pitt, and asked Newcastle to try and
get a ministry together once more. But Pitt had now
become the darling of the people, and men gave utter-
ance to their feelings in a very marked way. The lead-
ing cities and towns sent each its freedom to Pitt in a
gold box ; ' for some weeks,' it was said, ' it rained gold
boxes.' The King and Newcastle found that it was
hopeless to try any longer to withstand the will of the
people. Pitt was sent for, again made Secretary, and
allowed to become the ruling spirit in the new Pitt's great
Cabinet. The management of the war and ^^'"'^try
all dealings with foreign States were wholly Ju^t 1*757.
placed in his hands. Newcastle was First Lord of
the Treasury, and Anson First Lord of the Admiralty.
Thus was brought into being one of the strongest minis-
tries that have ever ruled England. It had all the
strength that came from Parliamentary support, for most
of the Commons voted as Newcastle wished ; and it had
all the strength that came from masterly intellect and the
hearty love of the people, for Pitt was the largest-minded
and most popular statesman that England has known for
two hundred years. The King too forgot his old grudge
against Pitt, and held loyally by his great minister.
William Pitt, known in his own days as * the Great
Commoner,' was the son of a West Country gentleman.
His character was very pure and noble ; when Paymaster
1
\1
70 Settlement of the Constitution, i u9-<,^^
he would not take anything but his lawful salar>', though
It was then usual for Paymasters to enrich themselves by
wmiam putting out at interest the balance of public
b.'i7o8, money in their hands. His ways of speaking
<l. X778. and acting were marked by a certain gran-
deur and stateliness, which filled those who came near
him with a feeling of awe. We have had few statesmen
equal to him in clearness of thought and greatness of soul.
3. The point that England and France had now re-
solved to settle by force of arms was— which of the two
The English nations should be master in North America
m Amenca. ^he English Colonies there had grown very
much of late years ; the settlement of Georgia in 1733
had raised their number to thirteen, and in 1756 their
population had reached 1,300,000. The land they dwelt
m stretched from the river Kennebec almost to the
Gulf of Mexico, and from the sea-coast to the Alleghany
mountains. They had not spread to the west of these
mountains, though some men among them were think-
The French ing of making a settlement there. Now the
^^ench had formed colonies in Canada and
Louisiana. There were indeed very {^\w French colonists
—hardly 60,000 in all— but many of these were soldiers,
whilst the English had no great skill or training in arms'
About 1749 the French began to claim all the lands west
of the Alleghanies ; and the Governor of Canada was
ordered to take the needful steps to secure these lands
for France. He at once set about raising a line of forts
between Canada and Louisiana. This line was to be a
border marking off the country which belonged to France
from that which belonged to England. By this arrange-
ment the 1,300,000 English would have been shut up in a
comparatively narrow strip of land along the seacoast,
while the 60,000 French would have had almost all the
rest of North America.
1754-56.
The Seven Years' War.
71
4. Just as the French were beginning to carry out this
design a company was formed in England to colonise
500,000 acres of land which King George had granted
them on the banks of the Ohio. But a small French
force had already built a fort there, which they called
Fort Duquesne. In 1754 George Washington, then a
young man, marched across the Alleghanies with 150
Virginians, to drive the French from the place. The
French were too strong for Washington, and he returned
home. By this time the English Government had come
to see that a great effort must be made to put down the
French in America ; and General Braddock was sent out
with two regiments to aid the colonists. Braddock
started from Virginia with 2,000 men, made his way
across the Alleghanies, and led his force Defeat of
blindly into the woods. When within 10 miles p^"!'.^' .
of Fort Duquesne he was assailed by bodies 1755- °*^ '
of French and Indians, who kept themselves carefully
under cover. Braddock, after losing 700 of his small
army, and getting mortally wounded himself, was forced
to retreat. He died on the way. There had also been
much wrangling and much fighting about the border
between Canada and Nova Scotia, where the English
had lately built the town of Halifax (1749). Clearly the
two peoples could not live at peace with each other on
equal terms. England and France now went to war to
find out which was to have the mastery.
5. Prussia was an ally of England in this war.
Frederick the Great, then king in Prussia, was George
XL's nephew, but hitherto there had been little Alliance
friendship between the two princes. Frederick t"^^ ■
had acted with France in the last war, and 1757-62.
until 1756 had been supposed to be still in close alliance
with the French king. But in that year it came to light
that Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony had
ijLa^
72 Settlement of the Cojistitution. 1 756-58.
banded themselves together to crush Prussia utterly •
and Frederick gladly made an alliance with his uncle'
By this England was to give Frederick 670,000/. every
year, both kings were to wage a common war against
France, and neither was to make peace without the
other.
CHAPTER II.
THE EVENTS OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR.
I. For the four years during which Pitt held the chief
power he thought of little else than how to bring the war
to a happy ending for England. It was his fixed resolve
to blot out the rule of the French in North America, and
Pitt's aims ^"^ ^'^^ ^^^ ^°^^ mastery there to his 'own
countrymen. The American nation, now one
of the mightiest on earth, owes the beginning of its
greatness to this war. '
2. At the outset England got rather the worse. In
1756 Minorca was wrested from her; and in 1757 a
The war be- German army in English pay, led by the Duke
^ns badly. ^f Cumberland, fell back before the French
Stade, on the sea-coast ; and to save it Cumberland
agreed, at Kloster-Zeven, to let the French keep Hanover
for a time. In America ;too the French seemed to be
the stronger power. In 1758, though they quietly left
Fort Duquesne when they heard that an army was coming
against the place, yet they beat back a body of 12,000
from Ticonderoga, killing or wounding 2,000 of them.'
3. But most of these things either happened or were
planned before Pitt became Chief Minister. Shortly after
The war in ^^^ appointment the war took a favourable turn
Germany. in both Germany and America. In Germany
'^^ • Pitt got from King Frederick a very good
general, Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, and set him over
f
1759. Events of the Seven Years' War. 73
the army which Cumberland had led so badly. Ferdinand
at once moved upon the French, drove them back from
point to point, and at last swept them clean out of
Hanover. He even followed them across the Rhine, and
overthrew them at Crefeld. Then Pitt added a
British force of 12,000 to Ferdinand's army. c?efdd.^
Most of our Highland regiments served for J""e,i758.
the first time in this war. Pitt had lately raised these
regiments from the Highland clans, rightly thinking that in
this way he would turn rebels into loyal soldiers. In 1758 a
fleet and army were sent against Cape Breton also. General
Amherst was leader of the army, but his second in com-
mand was James Wolfe, a young soldier of great skill and
daring, simple-hearted and truthful, whom Pitt had picked
out for command from among much older
men. The French tried to hinder the English s^uwler^"
from landing, but failed. Louisburg, the chief '758.
town of Cape Breton, was besieged and taken, whereupon
the whole island passed into the hands of the English.
4. But the great year of the war was 1 759 ; perhaps in
no single year has England won so many great successes
as in this one. In Germany, in America, in India, off the
coasts of Portugal and France mighty deeds of war were
done by the English. A writer then living said, ' One is
forced to ask every morning what victory there is, for fear
of missing one.'
5. (i.) In Germany the campaign began with a defeat.
The French having seized the free town of Frankfort,
Ferdinand marched swiftly southwards with
30,000 men to try and dislodge them. A Germany!"
little way from Frankfort he came upon '759-
35,000 French drawn up at Bergen, fought long and
stubbornly to clear them from his path, but
had at last to go back the way he came, leav- Bergen?^
ing 2,500 of his troops on the field. Yet in ^^''^- '
the following August he gained a victory at Minden,
1/
I
Pj' I W jftir^ - W V^_>:^ rcJi,' «rfL
1 ^^^ .^^
J -
i-i
74 Scttleinmt of the ConstiUition. ,759.
which more than wiped away the disgrace of Ber-en
He was standing at bay on the left bank of the Weser
with two French armies before him. These were stron<^lv
posted, and he dared not attack them. But he cun-
ningly tempted the French to come across the river •
whereupon six Enghsh regiments of foot boldly charged
OfMinden, and Scattered the French horse. The French
Enghsh foot, but were again routed by the swift and
steady musketry-l^re of their foes. Then the French
general gave the word for retreat. Ferdinand sent orders
to Lord George Sackville, the commander of the En-lish
horse to charge the retreating army ; and it is thotght
that, If Lord George had done so, the French army would
have been utterly crushed. But the Englishman, for
reasons that are not exactly known, would not char-e •
ana the beaten French were able to get back across the
river. They lost 7,000 in this battle. For this contempt
of orders Sackville was put out of the army altogether
by Kmg George. The Marquis of Granby took his place
.n command of the horse. Ferdinand kept the upper
hand throughout the rest of the campaign, the French
armies moving back towards Frankfort.
(2.) But the war in Germany was important only be-
cause It made success in America possible. It was in
The war in '^"'erica that the greatest event of the war
America, indeed of the century, took place. This was
frnn, ri, r ^l f "f Q"ebec, the chief town of Canada,
from the French. Late in June a large fleet, having on
Wn[f 'T, "■°°P'' ""^"'' *^ <^°'""''^"d °f General
V\ olfe, sailed into the St. Lawrence. Quebec stands on
Quebec '"^ 'eft bank of this river, perched on very
besieged. high rocks ; and the French commander,
a li,rl. I. ^^°""^^'"'' '^'^d posted his army, ,0,000 in all,
a httle lower down on the same side. Wolfe began by
■
.
1759. Events of the Seven Years' War, ' 75
bombarding the town from the other side, but did not get
a bit nearer winning it, though he did it much harm.
Next he crossed to the left bank and tried to force
Montcalm from his position. But his foremost troops
were too eager, and rushing upon their foes before the
1/
76
Settlement of the Constitntioji.
1759.
others could be brought forward, were beaten and driven
back in confusion. Wolfe became disheartened, and
almost gave up all hope of getting Quebec that year.
Through death and disease his army dwindled to hardly
more than 4,500, and he himself fell into a fever. He
waited on, however, thinking that help might come to
him from the South, whence Generals Amherst and
Johnson were striving to make their way. But no help
-came ; Johnson took Niagara, Amherst Ticonderoga, yet
neither could get near Quebec. At last, one dark night
in September, Wolfe's men went aboard boats and drifted
silently with an ebbing tide to a point two miles above
Quebec, now called Wolfe's Cove. There they landed,
climbed the Heights of Abraham, which rose steep from'
the river, and early next morning stood drawn up in
battle array on the level ground behind the town.
Montcalm was taken by surprise, but at once hastened
with his army to ' smash ' the English, as he said. The
French came briskly on ; the Enghsh stood stock-still
until they got their foes within forty yards— then they all
Death of at the Same moment poured a deadly volley
Wolfe. jj^^Q ^YiQ French ranks. The French paused ;
and Wolfe at once led his grenadiers to the charge. In
a few minutes all was over ; the enemy fled from the field.
But the noble Wolfe fell ; hit by three musket-balls, he
Sken^ Se ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^° ^^ ^°^^ ^^^^ ^^^ French ran
temblV, ^^' and to say, ' I shall die happy,' when he breathed
^759- his last. Montcalm too was wounded, and
died next^day. Four days later Quebec surrendered.
(3.) This year the French made a grand plan for
the^p^rtu°^ invading England. They got together fleets
^eseand at Toulon, Havre, and Brest, and thought
coSs, ^^at i^ these could be combined success was
^759. sure. But Pitt took care to prevent the union
•of these fleets. In July he sent Admiral Rodney against
,
ment of
Havre,
July.
Battle of
Lagos,
August.
1759-60. Events of the Seven Years' War, 77
Havre, who did much damage to the town and the flat-
bottomed boats that were to carry the French soldiers
across the Channel. In August, Admiral g^ ,
Boscawen caught the Toulon fleet, which had ""^ ^^ '
slipped through the Straits of Gibraltar, off
Lagos, in Portugal, and at once closed with it.
In this fight five of the largest French ships
were taken or sunk, and the rest driven
ashore or forced to flee. Yet the French still clung
to their plan ; and the preparations at Brest were
pushed briskly forward. To Admiral Hawke had
been given the duty of watching that port, and he
had watched it all the summer and autumn. But in
November the French fleet under Conflans, finding that
wild weather had driven Hawke from his sta- Battle of
tion, put out to sea. Hawke heard of this Q"iberon
movement, came back with all speed, fell upon November.l
Conflans, and beat him utterly. This battle was fought
in the midst of a raging storm, among dangerous rocks
and shoals, well known to the French, but not to the
English. It was an awful scene; three French ships
were sunk or burnt ; two struck their flags ; the rest were
chased into the river Vilaine or Charente.
6. The war lasted some years longer; but the English
always got the better of their enemies. In 1760 three
small armies moved at the same time on Canada
Montreal, where the French still held out. ^^^^^6.
Montreal surrendered, and the French power lyeS.^" '
in Canada came to an end. Prince Ferdinand too kept
his ground in Westphalia against forces much larger than
his own, and even gained one or two battles. Never had
the name of England been so great.
7. But at this point the King of Spain thought fit to
enter into the war on the side of France. He was a
Bourbon, and had a kindly feeling for his cousin of
w
7S Settlement of the Constitution. 1 761-63.
France. English war-ships, he said, had done grievous
wrong to Spanish trade during the war ; and Enghshmen
Spain joins ^"^^ ^ut logwood, in spite of him, on the
fgJi"n?t ^^""^^ °^ Campeachy Bay. In 1761 he bound
England, himself by another Family Compact to go to
1762. ^^j. ^i^j^ England if peace were not made
before May i, 1762. Pitt found out about this Family
Compact, and wanted to make war on Spain at once
when she was unprepared. But George II. had died the
year before (October, 1760) ; his grandson, George III.,
was not so hearty in upholding Pitt ; war was not de-
clared ; and Pitt went out of office. In 1762, however,
the Spaniards, having got themselves ready, began war
Spain vvith England. Again England was victo-
defeated j-ious at every point. A Spanish army which
had invaded Portugal, then an ally of England, was
forced to withdraw ; Havanna, the chief town of Cuba,
was taken at one end of the earth ; Manilla, the chief
town of the Philippine islands, was taken at the other.
Vast sums of money fell into the hands of the victors at
both places.
8. In 1763 the war was brought to a close by the
Peace of Paris. This treaty has some likeness to the
Peace of Peace of Utrecht. The Earl of Bute, George
FeWry ^^^''^ ^cw Minister, was so anxious to end the
1763. war that he not only abandoned England's
ally, the Prussian king, but let off France and Spain much
easier than they had hoped. France made over to
England, Canada, Cape Breton, and some West India
islands, and gave back Minorca. To Spain, England
restored Havanna and Manilla, getting only Florida in
their place. Most Englishmen were greatly displeased
with this arrangement ; but Bute carried it out neverthe-
less.
79
CHAPTER III.
THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH POWER IN INDIA.
I. Two things make the Seven Years' War the most
fruitful event of modern times for England. The first is
that it overthrew the French power in America, and thus
smoothed the way for the revolt of the English colonies
When the colonists no longer needed the help
of the mother-country against foes on their feln"'^
soil they were sure soon to separate them- ^^^''s' War.
selves from her altogether. The second noticeable thing
about this war is, that during it the English be-an to
build up their Empire in India.
2. England owes her sway over India to a mere body
of traders. In 1600 some London merchants got from
Queen Elizabeth a charter giving them the
sole right of trading with the East Indies for Complnf
fifteen years. Thus the great East India gLcetb'er
Company was founded. In 1609 James J. 3m6oo.
renewed this charter without fixing any term of years
only keeping to himself the power of taking it awav at
noHrrVv ^^r^^ ^" ^^ '^" ^"^^P^^y three years'
notice. This Company lasted until 1859; but in i8n
other people were allowed to trade with India as well
.1, 3.^^^ ^50 years the Company went on trading with
the East with no other thought than that of gainin-
riches. Their earliest dealings were not with Eadiest "
India Itself, but with the islands beyond their English
first factories being at Acheen, in Sumatra, theTnll"
and Bantam, in Java. In 1612, however, they turned
their thoughts towards India itself, and built a factory at
Surat. And mi6i5 Sir Thomas Roe was sent to Agra
to seek for his countrymen the good-will of Shah Jehan-
Rhir, the Great Mogul, as the chief ruler in India was
8o Settlement of the Constitution. 1612-1698.
called. But it was not all smooth sailing with the Corn-
Enmity of pany at first. The Portuguese and the Dutch,
thePortu- ^^Jjq j^^^j „q^ ^ footlng In the Indies before
guese and ° °
the Dutch. the English came, and did not wish any
others to share in their gains, gave the Company much
trouble. They had forts and ships of war in those
parts, and sought to drive the English away by force.
The English met force with force ; and for many years
a bitter warfare was kept up. In 161 2 a Portuguese fleet
made a bold attempt to crush the English at Surat, but
failed. The Dutch fought longer and more doggedly ;
and having more men and armed ships in the Indies
than the English, got the upper hand for a time. James
I. wanted very much to reconcile the Dutch and English
Companies, and twice made them agree to a peace.
But the hatred between them was long in dying out, and
led to more than one lawless deed of bloodshed.
4. Still the English Company not only held its own
but found a way into other parts of India. In 1640
it built Fort St. George (Madras) and Fort St. David on
lands which it bought from a native prince. Next
Charles II. gave it Bombay (1662), which had come to
him by his marriage with a princess of Portugal. After
the Restoration it became wonderfully pros-
thTcom-*^ perous. But in William III.'s time it got into
pany. trouble both at home and in India. A new
Company was formed which claimed freedom of trade ;
and having many friends in Parhament, seemed likely to
destroy the old. At the same time it did something
in India which kindled the wrath of the Great Mogul,
Aurengzebe ; and it lost the flourishing trading settle-
ments which it had formed at Hooghly. But in a few
years both clouds passed away. Aurengzebe was per-
suaded to take the Company again into favour, and
granted it some lands on the Hooghly. There in 169S
1702-48. Rise of the Eftglish Power in India. - 81
The English
in India in
1740.
it raised Fort William, round which the present Indian
capital, Calcutta, afterwards grew up. And, in 1702, the
old and new Companies made up their quarrel by uniting
themselves together. Thus quiet came, and fresh pros-
perity along with it.
5. In 1740 things stood thus. Each station — Fort St.
George, Fort William, and Bombay — formed a kind of
little state in itself, with a ruling body named
by the Company, and a small army, partly
Europeans and partly natives. These latter
were called Sepoys, from the native word for soldier
(sipahi). Money-making was still the only thought of
the English. The notion of bringing any part of India
under their rule seems never to have entered their heads.
But in 175 1 they were drawn, almost in spite of them-
selves, into the quarrels of the native princes, and were
thus tempted to enter on a wider field of action.
6. At this time there was a French East India Com-
pany also, with its chief stations in the island of Mauritius
and at Pondicherry, south of Madras. In
1746 the Governor of Mauritius was La FrSich in"
Bourdonnais, an able and honourable man ; ^"^*^-
and the Governor of Pondicherry was Dupleix, also a
man of great ability, but ambitious and vain. As war
was then going on between England and France, La
Bourdonnais sailed with 3,000 men to Madras, which
being unable to withstand his greater force, surrendered
to him. The Frenchman promised to give back the
place to the English when they had paid him a large
sum of money. But Dupleix claimed Madras as his con-
quest ; and when La Bourdonnais sailed away he not
only kept tjie place, but laid siege to Fort St. David.
From Fort St. David he was frightened away by the
coming of a new force from England. In 1748 the war
in Europe ceased, and Madras again became English.
E.H. G
82
Settlement of the Constitution. 1748-51.
7. But peace with the English brought no rest to
Dupleix. The Empire of the Great Mogul was now fast
Dupleix-s breaking up ; each native ruler was as good
designs. ^s independent in the lands under his govern-
ment ; and Dupleix thought that he might, by mixing
himself up in their affairs, make himself the greatest man
in Southern India. He was very successful for a time.
He pulled down one Nabob of Arcot and set up another ;
he pulled down the Viceroy of the Deccan — the Nizam,
as he was called — and set up another in his place. The
rule of South- Eastern India from the river Kistna to
Cape Comorin was put into Dupleix's hands ; his will
was law among thirty millions of people.
8. At this state of affairs the Enghsh in Madras got
afraid of being driven out of the country altogether, and
The English Sent a few hundred men to help Mahommed
interfere. ^1^ gon of the slain Nabob, who still held out
in Trichinopoly. But these men were shamefully beaten,
and shut up with their ally in Trichinopoly. It was just
Robert at this time that Robert Clive, a young man of
Ciive, noble daring, yet wary and cool-headed, came
d. 1774. forward to take the lead among the English.
He was the son of a Shropshire gentleman, had been
first % clerk in the Company's service, then an officer,
and then a clerk again. He was now put at the head of
500 men, of whom but 200 were Europeans, and in August
Ciive's early 175 1 marched Straight upon Arcot, the chief
successes. town of the Camatic. Arcot fell w^ithout strik-
ing a blow ; and Clive at once strengthened the walls and
got all things ready for a siege. Ten thousand men soon
closed round Arcot ; but for fifty days Clive kept them at
bay. In November the besiegers tried to storm the place,
but were utterly defeated, and gave up the siege. A body
of Mahrattas, which had been hired to fight for Mahommed
Ali, then coming up, Clive went in search of the retreating
1751-56. Rise of the Ejiglish Power in India. 83
army, overtook it at Arnee, and beat it thoroughly. Clive
then went on from success to success ; the siege of Trichi-
nopoly was raised, and Mahommed Ali was made Nabob
of Arcot. Dupleix worked hard to undo the effect of
Ciive's daring deeds, but in vain. The upshot of the
strife was that Dupleix was recalled to France, and a
peace favourable to the English was made in 1754. The
year before this, however, Clive had fallen into ill-health,
and gone back to England.
9. In 1756 CHve came back to India as governor of
Fort St. David. About the same time a dreadful misfor-
tune befell the English in Bengal. The young The Black
Nabob of Bengal, Surajah Dowlah, was jeal- Calcutta
ous of the prosperity of the strangers who had 1756.
settled on his soil, and, in 1756, led an army to take
and rob Calcutta. The English governor and the chief
officer ran away ; and the small garrison had to give up
the place. Then an awful deed was done by the Nabob's
officers. They thrust their 146 prisoners, one of whom
was a woman, into the narrow guard-room of the fort,
called the Black Hole, in which hardly a score of people
could breathe freely. Stifled for want of air they shrieked
to be let out ; but the men on guard were afraid to do
this without an order from the Nabob ; and the Nabob
was asleep, and no one dared to wake him. They were
therefore kept in all night. The scene was horrible;
the prisoners trampled on one another in their agony ;
some died at once; some went mad. Next morning,
when the doors were opened, 123 were corpses. Yet the
hard heart of the Nabob was untouched ; he put some of
the few survivors in chains, and took Calcutta to himselfi
But in some months Clive was sent from Madras with
2^4.00 men. He soon won back Calcutta from the
Nabob's soldiers ; and when the Nabob came down on
the place with a mighty host, Clive struck such fear into
G 2
84
Settleme7it of the Co7istitution. 1757.
him by a march which he made through his camp that the
Nabob was glad to agree to a peace.
10. This peace lasted only a short time. The Nabob
soon came to hate and dread the English more than
ever ; and Clive, thinking there would be no safety for
his countrymen so long as Surajah Dowlah was lord of
Bengal, made a plot for his overthrow. Meer Jaffier, his
chief general, was to be made nabob in his room. In
^^ j^^ this affair Clive stooped to do a very shameful
agal^s^ thing. Omichund, a Hindoo merchant, who
Dowiah. had been taken into the plot, threatened to
»757- ' tell Surajah Dowlah of it unless he was pro-
mised 300,000/. in the treaty made by the persons en-
gaged in the design. To quiet Omichund, Clive caused
a false copy of the treaty to be drawn up ; and when
Admiral Watson would not sign this, Clive had his name
put to it by another man. In this, which was shown to
Omichund, the promise of 300,000/. was made to the
Hindoo, but there was not a word about the money in
the true treaty. Clive marched at the head of 3,000 men
towards Moorshedabad, the chief town of Bengal. At
Plassey he met the Nabob's army, 50,000 strong, led by
Battle of the Nabob himself Here took place the first
Plassey, ^reat battle fought by the English in India.
Tune ix ^ o ^
1757. '' The Nabob's army broke almost at once
before the onset of dive's little band, and rushed wildly
from the field. Surajah Dowlah fled far away, but
was caught, brought before Meer Jaffier, and slain in
prison. Clive went on to Moorshedabad, and there set
up Meer Jaffier as nabob of Bengal. Then Omichund
was told of the trick that had been played upon him.
The shock was so great that he became an idiot, and soon
afterwards died. The new nabob granted the EngUsh
the lordship of a wide tract of land as the reward of their
services to him.
1
1757-61. Rise of the English Power in India. 85
11. Clive's second stay in India lasted three years
longer. He was not idle during this time. He put to
flight the army of the Great Mogul's eldest son cilve's
from before Patna. He destroyed a Dutch ^l^^^^^
fleet and army which were on their way up 1757-60.
the Hooghly to Chinsurah, a Dutch station, because he
believed they had been sent to work evil to his country-
men. He never faltered, and everything he put his
hand to prospered. Early in 1760 he sailed home, and
was at once made an Irish peer as Lord Clive, and got a
seat among the Commons.
12. Whilst Clive was busy in Bengal, the English at
Madras were in serious danger. Count Lally ToUendal,
a brave and skilful but rather fiery general, Laiiy
had been sent out from France with 1,200 i^dll^xjsS-
trained soldiers to strengthen the French at 1761.
Pondicherry. In 1758 he laid siege to Fort St. David,
took it and levelled it to the ground. Next he went
against Madras itself ; but after trying every means he
could think of to win the place, he had to give up his
design and march away. In 1760 he was End of
overthrown by Eyre Coote, a famous English }j^^^}-^^
soldier, at Wandewash. Next year Pondi- i"dia, 1761.
cherry was taken by the English. With the fall of
Pondicherry the French power in India came to an end.
It was now clear that the English were to be masters of
India, if India was to have foreign masters.
S6
BOOK V.
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE KING
AND THE WHIG HOUSES.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF GEORGE III.'S REIGN.
I. In October 1760 George II. suddenly died, and his
eldest grandson became king as George III. The new
king was twenty-two years old ; and his character was
in many ways unlike that of the earlier kings of his line.
He was thoroughly English in feeling as in birth ; he
had much good sense ; he was fully alive to
Kingfijei his duties as a king, and strove to fulfil them
1820.' faithfully ; and he had always a warm desire
to do good to his people. He had also high courage and
spirit. Perhaps his most marked quality was his unflinch-
ing pursuit of any end that he had once set before him.
His life was pure, and his tastes were homely.
oMeOTge But his powers of mind were not great ; his
i^^- understanding was narrow and untrained ;
and he had little knowledge. Eleven months after his
accession he married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strehtz,
a lady like-minded with himself Queen Charlotte
became the mother of many children, and lived until
1818.
2. George III.'s coming to the throne wrought great
changes, but not at once. The Jacobites and High
Pitt's Min- Tories indeed, who had held aloof in dislike
istry still Qj. enmity from the first two Georges, saw in
office.'" George III. a native king to whom they could
be loyal, and crowded to his Court. The Earl of Bute,
^.
X761. First Ten Years of George I I lis Reign. "^J
who had hitherto been his great friend and counsellor,
was made one of the Secretaries of State ; and there
were some other little signs that a new order of things
was at hand. But the Ministry of William Pitt was still
kept in power. The whole management of the war and
of foreign affairs was still left to him.
3. But in October Pitt withdrew from office, because
his advice to make war at once upon Spain was not fol-
lowed ; and the king straightway struck into -phe King
a new path. Taking as his guide John Stuart, enters upon
Earl of Bute, he set to work to make himself course,
king in reality. For almost fifty years the '^Si-
King of England had been helpless in the hands of the
great Whig houses. The Constitution still gave him a
large measure of power ; but the heads of these houses
had come to look upon this power as their own. The
king could not withhold from them anything they
were firmly bent on having ; for everything now hung
on the vote of the Commons, and the Whig leaders had
the means of getting this vote whenever they wished.
As George II. had once said, ' in England the Ministers
were king ; ' and these must be taken from the ranks of
the great Whig lords and of those whom these lords
favoured. But George III. made it the grand purpose
of his life to wrest from the Whig lords the foremost
place in the State. Thus began a struggle that lasted
for many years, in which George had his own way in the
end.
4. One or two things make this fight for power unlike
other struggles of the same kind in our history, (t.) It
was not a strife between the king and the -^^^^^^
people, but between the king and a few men of the
of vast influence. The Revolution Settlement struggle.
had left to the king a fair share of power ; he could
declare war ; make peace ; call together and send away
88 Settlement of the Constitution, 1762.
parliaments ; bestow honours, dignities, and every kind
of appointment in Church and State at his pleasure ;
and do many other things which made people look up
to him with reverence, and be glad to win his favour.
George III. now raised the question — was all this power
to be used by the king himself or by the Whig
houses ? George strained every nerve to make this
power the king's, and his alone. He called himself a
Whig of the Revolution, for he wanted things brought
back to what they had been in 1690. (2.) The kings of
former days had sought to work their will in spite of the
Commons ; but George sought to work his will throtigh
the Commons. To gain his ends he used every means he
could think of to get members of Parliament to vote as
he wished. And it was only by mtmbers of Parliament
voting as he wished that he was able to gain his ends.
This, then, is the meaning of the struggle— George was
resolved that his will should be of some account in the
ruling of the country, and sought to make the working of
the Constitution such as the Revolution had made it.
5. The battle began in earnest in May 1762, when
Newcastle was forced to resign his post. Bute, who had
Bute Prime ^"^^ some time held all the power of a Prime
Minister, Minister, then became so in name also. The
May, 1762. raising of such a man to so high an office in
itself showed what the king was bent on doing. Bute
had been in the service of the king's father, had won the
fast friendship of the king's mother, and had been the
tutor of the king himself. He had no better gifts of
mind than his fellows, and no training as a statesman ;
but he had the good-will of the king, and so was made
chief ruler of the nation under the Crown. The first
trial of strength between the king and the men whom he
was eager to humble was about the making of peace with
France in 1762. Henry Fox undertook for a large reward
I
k
1762-65. First Ten Years of George Ill's Reig7i:8g
to get a vote in its favour from the Commons. He fulfilled
his promise thoroughly. Only 65 of the Commons
voted against the Peace, whilst 319 voted for it. George
now felt himself to be indeed King of Eng-
land. But the wrath of the people at these signs,
doings showed itself so plainly that Bute got ^P"'' *^^3'
frightened and threw up his office.
6. George Grenville, whose sister was Pitt's wife, was
then placed at the head of affairs. It was thought that
Grenville would not only carry out the king's Grenville,
wishes, but would also be willing to follow Minster,
Bute's guidance. But Grenville complained 1763-65-
so much to George about Bute's influence that George
soon became anxious to get rid of him. There were,
however, few statesmen willing to be the king's min-
isters on the king's terms. George made several at-
tempts to win over Pitt to form a new Ministry ; but
they all fell through. At last in 1765 the King's dislike of
Grenville overcame his dislike of the Whig lords ; and
a Ministry of the old kind, with the Marquis of Rocking-
ham as its leader, came into office.
7. Englishmen will long remember Grenville's Min-
istry for two causes, (i.) It began and carried on a
legal persecution of John Wilkes, a member
of Parliament who had written against the 'general
Government in a paper called the ^ North ^^'^'^'^^'^'s.
Briton.' Wilkes was seized along with several others on
a ^ general warrant,' that is, a warrant in which no per-
sons were named, but which simply empowered the
king's officers to arrest those that had done a certain
thing supposed to be unlawful. The Court of Common
Pleas released Wilkes because no one had a right to
arrest a member of Parliament for libel. There was
much excitement throughout the country, and Wilkes
became very popular. He soon, however, got into
90
Settlement of the Co?tstitutio7i, 1765-66.
trouble again, was wounded in a duel, fled to France^
and was outlawed. But Chief Justice Pratt, afterwards
Lord Camden, gave a solemn judgment against the law-
fulness of general warrants ; and they have
can Stamp never been used since. (2.) Grenville carried
^^' through Parliament the law which first stirred
up a strong ill-feeling in the American colonies against
England.^ This was an Act for raising a tax from the
Americans by means of a duty on stamped paper. .
8. Rockingham's Ministry lasted no longer than a
year. The king did not like it, and kept it only until he
could get a body of ministers more to his mind. It lived
long enough, however, to do away with the American
Stamp Act, which had caused a general outburst of
angry feeling in America, and indeed could not be
Rocking- enforced.- But the king looked coldly on this
MiUisferr^ Ministry ; and the Kmg's Friends, as those
1765-6. members in the Commons were called who
were always ready to vote as the King bade them, took
the side opposed to it. The King, moreover, vvas at last
able to make an arrangement with Pitt. Rockingham
was dismissed, and Pitt, who was now created Earl of
Chatham, took his place.
9. Pitt's second Ministry was as great a failure as his
first had been a success. For this there were several
Pitt's reasons. He had lost the love of the people
Innfsfry, ^y becoming a peer. He had undertaken to
1766-8. break up parties — a task which he found to
be impossible. He had separated himself from his old
Whig friends, and found himself with no other followers
than the King's Friends, who looked more to the King
than to him. But there was a sadder cause still. Early
* See Epoch VII., p, 6.
2 See Epoch VII., p. 7.
1768. First Ten Years of George I IIJs Reign. 91
in 1767 a strange disease laid hold upon him ; his mind
seems to have given way ; and for eighteen months he
was utterly helpless, being unable to take the slightest
part in the management of affairs. During this time
everything went wrong, for the Duke of Grafton, Prime
Minister in name, was too weak to hold in check the
other ministers. Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, got Parliament to agree to a bill laying
duties on tea and other goods imported to America ; ^ and
thus the wound which the repeal of the Stamp Act had
almost healed vvas torn open anew. In 1768 Chatham's
health of mind came back to him ; but the first use he
made of it was to give up his place in the Ministry.
10. Grafton stayed in office for some time longer.
During this the King was making good way towards the
object he was seeking after, for neither Grafton nor
Lord North, whom the death of Charles Townshend had
made Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1767, cared to
thwart him. The noisiest question this Min-
istry had to deal with was one that arose out Ministry,
of the election of Wilkes to Parliament. In ^768-70.
1768 Wilkes had returned from Paris and been chosen
one of the members for Middlesex. But he was sent to
gaol for two years in punishment of the libels
he had written. Whilst in gaol he wrote a the rights
letter which the Commons regarded as a libel of electors.
on the Secretary of State, Lord Weymouth. They
therefore expelled Wilkes from their House. Middlesex
again elected him. A second time the Commons ex-
pelled him. Middlesex elected him a third time. But
on his being expelled a third time, another man, one
Colonel Luttreil, stood for Middlesex ; and, though three
times as many votes were given for Wilkes, the Commons
took Luttreil as their member. Many people thought
1 See Epoch VII., p. 7.
92
Settlement of the ConstitiUion,
1770.
a gross
1 7 7 1 . George III, and L ord North.
93
that the Commons in taking this course did
wrong to the electors.
In 1770 Grafton resigned, and Lord North at once be-
came the chief of a new Ministry.
CHAPTER II.
GEORGE III. AND LORD NORTH.
I. Lord North was the eldest son of the Earl of
Guildford. He was a very good-humoured, even-tem-
Lord North, pared man ; it was almost impossible to make
MiSster ^^^ angry. To most people his Ministry at
r77o-82. ' first seemed very weak and not likely to live
long. Yet it lived for twelve years. Many things worked
together to give it this unusual length of life. The
King's Friends were hearty in upholding it. The King
found in Lord North a Minister to his mind, and used
his power and influence to the uttermost to keep him in
office. He took pains to find out how each
^u^rs^o?* member of Parliament voted, and gave or
action. withheld his favours according as he voted for
or against Lord North. Then the old Tory party had
come together again, and, true to its principles, held to the
man whom the king delighted to honour. Lastly, the
Whigs had got disunited, some looking to Chatham,
others to Rockingham as their leader. And George,
who longed to do away with party-government, now and
then gave office to a Whig of mark who was willing to
break with his party.
2. The king had now fairly got the upper hand ;
during these twelve years he was in every way the real
ruler of the nation. He and Lord North thought alike
^
i
about the rights of the people and the rights of the king,
for Lord North was a stout Tory. Moreover, George
was a man of masterful will, Lord North was of an easy,
yielding temper, and did little more than carry out the
King's wishes. The bulk of the Commons cheerfully
agreed to everything that the ministers laid before
them.
3. Yet in 1771 the Commons foolishly thrust them-
selves into a quarrel which ended in a way that, in the
long run, weakened the king's power, and helped forward
great changes in Parliament itself. At this time men
outside Parliament had not the means which they have
now of easily learning what members said in their
debates. Neither the Lords nor the Commons would
let anyone publish in an open way any account of their
debates. In 1771 certain newspapers began to give to
the world reports of speeches in Parliament without dis-
guise. The Commons grew angry, and called upon the
printers to come before them and answer for what they
had done. One or two of the printers thus summoned
would not come, and an officer of the House
was sent to arrest them. But this officer was
himself seized and brought before the Lord
Mayor on a charge of having tried to arrest a
citizen of London without a lawful warrant.
The Lord Mayor ordered him to be sent to prison. In
this way the House of Commons and the City of London
got into a bitter dispute, in the course of which the
Lord Mayor was sent to the Tower. But the men of
London showed so dangerous a temper, that the Com-
mons took care never to bring on themselves a similar
trouble again. Henceforth newspapers have been al-
lowed to publish as full reports of Parliamentary debates
as they can get.
4. Statesmen had now begun to watch the growth of
Parliament-
ary debates
first allowed
to be
printed,
1771.
94 Settlement of (he Constitution, 1760-65 .
English power in India with some interest ; and a feel-
^ ^^^ ing was spreading that the men who were at
EngTish° the head of Enghsh affairs in that land had
inlia' '" often been guilty of wrongful deeds. After
1760-4. 1760 the onward course of the Enghsh in
India had gone on unchecked. In 1763 the Council of
Calcutta, who had shortly before set aside Meer Jaffier,
and made Meer Cossim nabob of Bengal in his place,
took offence at Meer Cossim, and sent an army to over-
throw him also. He was overthrown, and Meer Jaffier
became nabob once more. But this high-handed way of
dealing with an Indian prince was very displeasing to
other Indian princes; and in 1764 the Great Mogul
himself, Shah Alum, and his Vizier, the
Buxir^ more powerful nabob of Oude, Sujah Dowlah,
1764. ' marched a force of 50,000 men against the
meddling strangers. At Buxar this force was met, and
shamefully routed by 8,000 Sepoys and 1,200 Europeans,
led by Major Hector Munro. Next day Shah Alum, glad
to free himself from the control of his Vizier, slipped into
Munro's camp, and agreed to a treaty which placed in
the hands of the Company the rule of still more Indian
lands.
5. But by this time the misconduct of the Company's
servants had reached such a height, and the Company's
dive's last affairs had fallen into such disorder, that in
1765 Lord Clive had to go out a third time to
try and set things right. A great fear fell
upon the native princes when they heard that Clive was
again in India ; Sujah Dowlah at once yielded himself
up, and the Great Mogul was ready to do anything the
English liked. Clive gave back to Sujah Dowlah the
greater part of Oude, whilst he got the Great Mogul to
make over to the Company, in return for a yearly rent of
260,000/., the rule of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. In this
visit to
India,
1765-6.
f
1765. George III, and Lord North. 95
way the English in India became lords of a region larger
than England itself. Clive found his own countrymen
much harder to deal with. They were loth to give up
trading on their own account and taking gifts from the
q6 Scttlevicnt of the Constitution. 1765-74.
natives, by which they were growing very rich. The
arm 'which lay at Monghir, mutinied. But Chve stood
fear essly to his purpose ; the mutmy at Mongh.r was
put down with a strong hand, and every man m the
pay of the Company had to bow to Chve's wdl. Late
^1766 ill-health again forced Clive to return to
^"?ciive's reforms did not at once work all the good
expected from them. In .767 the English at Madras
!. ^ ; , were drawn into a costly war with Hyder Ah,
SftelfTht the Rajah of Mysore, the most dangerous
l^r' foe they had yet encountered ; and after two
vears' fi-hting they had to make a peace from.wh.ch they
Ta^ed nothing ; and in 1770 a dreadful famme carried
off a third of the people of Bengal. The Company sank
d!ep J and deeper into distress, and Parliament felt
Jound to take steps to lessen this evil state of things
After certain members of the Commons, who had been
^med to look into the Company's affairs had gn^en m
their report. Parliament passed the Regula-
TheRegu- • it brought in by Lord North. Ihis
"^ ^" law set up a new court at Calcutta, called the
Supreme Court, made the Governor of Bengal-who then
happened to be Warren Hastings-Governor-General of
Tndfa and named a council of four to advise this official
^wvhT doings The Commons also soon after
TaLdatteof-s-eon Lord Clive ^r some of Ms
r t / acts in India, though they allowed he had
?S? done great things for his country-. Clive, how-
November, ^^^^ ^^^ treatment very much to heart,
Ind towards the end of 1774 killed himself in his London
Lnnse He was only forty-nine years old.
7 But it was upon America that men's eyes were
chie'fly fixed whUe n' rth was Minister.^ In the first half
1 See Epoch VII., pp. 8-19.
i
1774-77.
George III. and Lord North,
97
\
of his time of office the chief work of Parliament was to
agree to those laws— laid before them by the King's
trusted Minister— which led to the colonists l^.^
taking up arms against the mother-country ; North^s^
during the second half, Parliament, Lord North, with
• • 1 Am cries.
and the King were vainly strivmg to undo
the mischief they had done. The Commons must share
with George 1 11. the blame of having driven the Americans
into war, and seen their mistake only when it was too
late. Nor should it be forgotten that the country at
large was of the same mind as King and Par- Public
liament regarding the justice of their cause ; theTmer?-
the English people, save a few deep-thinking can war.
and far-seeing men, approved of the course that the
King and his Minister were taking.
8. Such, however, was not the opinion of Lord Chatham.
He often spoke with great force and earnestness against
the laws and doings that were angering the Americans,
and in 1775 he brought in a bill for doing Lord
away with all causes of quarrel between the tHe^to pre-
two countries. This bill the Lords at once vent war.
threw out ; but Chatham still tried hard to save his coun-
try from herself. When the war had broken out, he told his
countrymen that they could not ' conquer the Americans,'
and again and again spoke warmly in favour of peace.
When'the news of the disgrace at Saratoga in 1777 came,^
and France made an alliance with America, there was a
general wish that Chatham should be made Prime
Minister, and Lord North would gladly have given place
to him. But the frank words that Chatham had often
uttered regarding the management of American affairs
had greatly displeased the king, and he was slow to see
the necessity of taking the great statesman into his
counsels ; and before the king could make up his mind
1 See Epoch VII., p. 15.
E.H. H
98
Settlement of the Constitution. 1778
1779-82. George III. and Lord North.
Chatham was dead. In April 1778 he had, though very
ill, gone to the House of Lords to speak against a motion
in favour of peace ; for now that France had joined
America, Chatham would not hear of peace ; he had
spoken against the motion, and when rising to
S^May speak a second time had fallen back in a fit-
II. 1778. Five weeks later he died. Lord North, eager
as he was to leave his post, was forced to stay. If he,
had gone, the heads of tne Whig houses must have come
into power ; and the king said, ' I would rather lose the
crown I wear than bear the ignominy of possessing it
under their shackles.'
9. Yet Lord North had no easy task. A group of
very able men, small in number, but great in gifts of
The Oppo- genius and power of speech, opposed him in
sition. the Commons and gave him no rest. Of
these the deepest thinker and speaker was Edmund
Burke, an Irishman, who had been brought into Parlia-
ment by Lord Rockingham, and gained a foremost place
Edmund in the ranks of the Whigs by sheer force of
?"^^^^ intellect. Burke wrote as well as spoke
d! 1797! powerfully ; indeed he is believed to be our
greatest political writer. The greatest speaker of the
group was Charles James Fox, a younger son of Henry
Charles Fox. At hrst Fox had been a Tory, and been
James Fox, jj^ ^ff^^e for some ycars under Lord North ;
b. i74y»
d. 1806. but he changed his views as time went on,
became a Whig, and ere long took the place of Whig
leader in the Commons. By watchful care he made
himself the most skilful and telling Parliamentary speaker
of the day. Other Whigs of mark were Colonel Barre
and Mr. Dunning.
10. Session after session these men withstood Lord
North in every way they could think of. They spoke
strongly and boldly against everything the Minister did,
99
warned him of the fatal course he was taking in taxing
and then trying to conquer the Americans, and frankly
said that they thought the Americans right in resistino-
the armies of England. They were nearly always beaten
by large majorities, but they were not disheartened, and
never ceased from their attacks on the Minister. The
thing they were most bitter against was the Economic
great and growing power of the kinor. To cut ^^^^o'"'"
A^ iX.- ^ ^ • , ^ movement,
down this power they hit upon a plan for les- 1779-82.
sening the king's influence, which they named Economic
Reform, and strove zealously to get Parliament to approve
of it. It was Burke who thought out, and was most
eager in pushing forward, this plan. It sought to do
away with all useless offices, to bring down the pension
list to a fixed sum, 60,000/. a year— in fact to make the
work of ruling the nation less costly. But its grand ^
aim was to weaken the king's influence; most of the
useless offices were in the king's household ; many of
the men who held them sat among the Commons, and
readily voted as their master wished. A brief sentence
states the whole evil which Burke wanted to destroy—
'The king's turnspit was a member of Parliament.'
Efforts were made to carry this plan through Parliament
from time to time, but they all failed so long as Lord
North was Prime Minister.
1 1. But in March 1782, owing to the ill-success of the
English arms in America,^ the Commons began to show
signs of turning against Lord North ; and the Lord North
king at last consented to let him go. Once
more George had to fall back on the Whig
houses, and to take Lord Rockingham a's
Minister. Still he was able to keep a high
place for at least one of his friends ; Lord Thurlow re-
mained Chancellor. Fox was one of the Secretaries of
^ See Epoch VII., p. 18.
h2
resigns.
Rocking-
ham Prime
Minister,
March,
1782.
lOO Settlement of the Constitution. .782-S3.
State and Burke Paymaster of the Forces. This
M^ni^trv lasted but a few months, for Rockmgham died
Mmistr> lastea uui enough, however, to
in the foUow.ng J J ^^^fj^^^ol^^ i^io.r.. This
carry a Pa" of » ^i^"^^,,,^, offices, and cut down
X. Tent: li:trbut'tt :.. far from doin, aU that had
'^^ta'ToSham was no sooner Jea^tb-an^t^^^^^^^^^^^
r: °?" wi rad%:'r r Sde?of fhe 'c^ i
l';rr Min. Whigs after Chatham's death, and w,th h,s
i's"' J"'^'- friends had taken office under Lord Rockmg-
T' Rnt now the king gave the first place to the
v'",- of Shelburne and Fox, Burke, and the other
Sdfof'SSan. resigned ^-a body, and became
thf. enemies of the new Ministry. They did worse , they
took th^ a al step of uniting themselves with the party
of Ae man a<.ainst whom they had fought so long and
b t ter y Lord°North. This conduct brought dcnvn upon
them the wrath both of king and people, and led, after a
hon struggle, to their utter o-'^^f Fo.lndVonh
the ' Coahtion,' as the combined party of Fox and JNortn
*' wa^ called, outvoted Shelburne on a quest on
The'Coall- ^ j p-gx had himself set in mot,on-the
l^.^F^r making of peace.' Shelburne had to retire
Dec. .783. ^^ then forced the king to take them as
his ministers ; and George for nearly a je-'-^a^ to
^cten to the counsels of men whom he hated. He made
no secret of his enmity to them, and thwarted them by
Trtm ans in his power. Yet ^e two statesmen had
mo^ of the Commons at their command, and the king
ivas helpless in their hands. But in December 1783 he
Wt that he could bear the yoke no longer ; and when an
?ndia Bill of Fox's, which the Commons had approved of
1 See Epoch VII., p. 22.
1784.
Geovire II L and Lord NortJi.
lOI
went up to the Lords, the king let it be known that he
would look on every lord who voted for it as his enemy.
The Lords therefore threw out the bill ; and the king
not only turned away his hated ministers, but boldly
offered the post of Prime Minister to WilHam Pitt, a
younger son of Lord Chathams, then only twenty-four
years old. Pitt, with even greater boldness, accepted the
king's offer (December 1783)-
13. For three months the new Minister had to hold
his place against a House of Commons that promptly
voted against him on every question. Pitt william
was beaten over and over again ; the ' Coali- Pjj^^^^^j;"^
tion ' strained every nerve to drive him from i^ecember,
office. But Pitt manfully stood his ground. '^Ss-
A strong feeling against Fox and North was setting in
throughout the country, and Pitt was resolved to wait
until this feeling had reached its height. Late in
March 1784 he saw that the proper time had come,
and asked the king to dissolve Parliament. The king
did so ; and in the general election which followed, by
far the greater number of members chosen ^,^^^^^j
were pledged to give their votes to Pitt. The election of
king had won ; the election of 1784 gave the '7^^-
Tories the rule of the country for almost fifty years.
When we look closely at the ninety-five years of
English history which we have just passed through, side
:bv side with the times which go before, the
thing that we see most clearly is this — the
House of Commons has now come to be all-important in
the State. But when we look at the history of these
same years side by side with the times that come after,
the thing that strikes us most is— the House of Commons
I02
Settlciuent of the ConstiUition.
is not yet a body that has a mind of its own and can.
act for itself. Owing to the way in which most of its.
members are chosen, it willingly puts itself into the
hands of others, and gives them its power to use as they
wish. At one time some powerful men among the
nobility manage to bind together their friends among the
Commons, and through these to make and unmake the
king's Ministries at their pleasure. At another tmie a
resolute king, by bringing into play the means still left
in his power, can win over most of the Commons to his
side, and carry out his will in every part of the State.
It is clear, however, that any great change in the way of
choosing men to sit in Parliament might take away from
the king and the great folk the power of getting any
kind of vote they want from the Commons, and might
thus aUer very much the manner of ruling the people.
Such a change has since come, as will be told in a later
Avork in this series.
But for a hundred years the people were pretty well
satisfied with the order of things they lived under, and
desired no change. Many men were growing rich ; trade
was spreading swiftly ; there was a rude plenty among
the tillers of the soil, and there was little complaining.
And there is much in the history of this time for English-
men to be proud of. It is true, they lost the American
colonies of their own planting ; but, on the other hand,
they twice overcame in war the most warlike European
power, wrested from this same power its great American
colonies, crushed its strength in India, and began build-
ing up in that country a grand empire for themselves.
f
INDEX OF PERSONS.
ADD
A DDISON, Joseph, 44
^ Amherst, General, 73, 76
Anne, Queen, 25, 26, 28, 31-47
Anson, Commodore, 60 ; Lord, &9
Arcot, Nabob of, 82
Arg^'le, Earl of, 9
Argyle, Duke of, 49
Atterbur>% Francis,
Rochester, 56
Aurengzebe, 80
Bishop of
BARRE, Colonel, 98 ^ , ,
Bentinck, Earl of Portland, 25
Boscawen, Admiral, 77
Boufflers, Marshal, 35
Braddock, General, 71
Burke, Edmund, 98, 99
Bute, Earl of, 78, 87, 89
Byng, Sir George, 52
Byng, Admiral, son, 68
PAMDEN, Lord, 90
^ Cameron, Richard, 10
Campbell of Glenlyon, Captain,
Carpenter, General, 50
Carteret, Lord, 61 ; Earl Granville.
62
Charles IL, King of England, 4
Charles IL, King of Spain, 27, 28,
Charles IIL, King of Spain, 77
Charles, the Archduke. 29, 30.
Emperor, 45. 52, 6.3
Charles Edward, Prince, 65, 67
Charles, Elector of Bavaria, 63;
Emperor, 64
Charlotte, Queen, 86
Cleland, William Colonel, 10
GEO
Clive, Robert, 82, 83, 84 ; Lord 85
Conflans, Admiral, 77
Coote, Eyre, 85
Cope, Sir John, 65
Cumberland, William, Duke of, 64.
67, 72
D
ALRYMPLE, Sir John, n
Danby, Earl of, 4, 23
Dauphin, the, 28, 20, 30
Derwentwater, Earl of, 49
Devonshire, Duke of, 69
Dunning, Mr., 98 ^ „ ,. ,
Dupleix, Governor of Pondicherry,
81, 82
ELIZABETH, Queen, 24, 79
Elizabeth of Bohemia, 25
Eugene of Savoy, Prince, 34, 35
FERDINAND of Brunswick,
Duke, 72, 73, 75, 77
Forster, Mr., 49
Fox, Henr>', 68, 88
Fox, Charles James, son, 98, 99, 100
Frederick, the Palsgrave, 26
Frederick IL, King of Prussia, the
Great, 63, 71
Freeman, Mrs., 32
C ALWAY, Earl of, 37 ^ .
^^ George of Denmark, Prince, 32
George I., King, 47-57
George IL, King, son, 57-78, 87
George IIL, King, grandson, 76,
86-101
104
Index of Persons.
Index of Persons.
lo;
GIN
SAC
Ginkell, General, i
Gloucester, Duke of, 25
Godolphin, Lord, 33, 42, 4^
Grafton, Duke of, 91, 92
Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount
Dundee, 8, 9, 10
Grammont, Duke of, 63
Granby, Marquis of, 74
Grenvllle, George, 89
Guildford, Earl of, 92
HAMILTON, Richard, 13
Hardwicke, Lord, 61
Harley, Robert, 43 ; Earl of Oxford,
43> 45. 46, 4?
Hastings, Warren, 96
Hawke, Admiral, 77
Hawley, General, 67
Hyder Ali, 96
cy ACQ BITES, the, 5
J James L, King, 70, 80
James IL, King, 2, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13,
T4, 17, 18, 24, 27, 31, 32
James Edward, the Pretender, 27,
46, 48, 49, 51. 57. 64
Jenkins, Robert, 59
Joseph, Electoral Prince of Bavaria,
28, 29
TZENMURE, Eari of, 49, 50
■^^ Kilmarnock, Earl of, 67
T A BOURDONNAIS, Governor
-■-^ of ^L1uritius, 81
Lally Tollendal, Count, 85
Leopold, Emperor, 28, 29
Lewis XIV., King of France, 5, 14,
16, 17, 18, 19, 26-31, 39, 45, 47.
Lewis XV., Kmg of France, great-
grandson, 51, 59
Lovat, Lord, 67
Luttrell, Colonel, 91
Luxemburg, Marshal, 19
TV/TAC IAN, of Glencoe, 11
^^^ Mackay, Hugh, General, 9
Mahommed Ali, 82
Mar, Earl of, 49, 50
Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary,
63, 64
Marlborough, Duke of, 32, 33, 34,
35, 40, 42. 46
Marlborough, Duchess of, wife, 32,
43
Mary II. , Queen, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9,
22, 25
Maurice of Saxony, Pnnce, 64
Meer Cossim, 94
Meer Jafifier, 84, 94
Mogul, the Great, 79, 80, 85
Montague, Charles, 22 ; Earl of
Halifax, 43
Montcalm, Marquis of, 74-6
Morley, Mrs., 32
Munro, Hector, Major, 94
N
EWCASTLE, Duke of, 62, 68,
69, 88
Nizam, the, 82
Noailles, Marshal, 63
Nonjurors, the, 5
North, Lord, 92, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100
Nottingham, Earl of, 4, 23
f^MICHUND, Hindoo merchant,
^ 84
Orleans, Duke of, 51
Ormond, Duke of, 36, 48, 49
pELHAM, Henr>% 62, 68
•*■ Pelhams, the, 61-67
Peterborough, Earl of, 37
Philip, Duke of Anjou, 30 ; Philip
v.. King of Spain, 30, 36, 45, 46,
5^. 52, 59 „ „
Pitt, William, 58, 62, 68, 69-78, 87,
90; Earl of Chatham, 91, 97.
98
Pitt, William, the younger, son, 97,
Id
Pulteney, William, 58
■O OCKINGHAIM, IMarquis of, 89.
■*^^ 90, 99, 100
Rodney, George, Admiral, 76
Roe, Sir Thomas, 79
Rooke, Sir George, Admiral, 34
Russell, Admiral, 18
C ACHEVERELL, Henry, 42
*^ Sackville, Lord George, 74
SAT
WOO
■St. John, Henry, 43; Viscount
Bolingbroke, 43, 45, 47. 4^, 49
St. Ruth, General, 15
Sarsfield, Patrick, General, 15
Shah Alum, 94
Shah Jehanghir, 79
Shelbume, Earl of, 100
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 4 ; Duke of,
47
Somers, Lord, 23, 25, 30, 40, 43
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, 6, 25,
47
Stanhope, General, 37 ; Eari, 48, 50,
51. 52, .53 . , ,
Steele, Sir Richard, 44
Sujah Dowlah, 94
Surajah Dowlah, 83, 84
Sunderland, Earl of, 40, 51, 53
Swift, Jonathan, Dean, 44, 56
T^ALLARD, Marshal, 34
■■■ Thurlow, Lord, 99
Torrington, Earl of, 18
Tourville, Admiral, 18
Townshend, Lord, 48, 50. 5i. 52. 58
Townshend, Charles, grandson, 88,
90
Tyrconnel, Duke of, 13
WENDOME, Duke of, 35
* Victoria, Queen, 26
Villars, Marshal, 35
A^rALPOLE, Sir Robert, 48, 50
51. 52, 53-60 ; Earl of Orford,
60, 61
Washington, George, 71
Watson, Admiral, 84
Weymouth, Lord, 91
Wharton, Thomas, Lord, 40
Wilkes, John, 89, 90, 91
William III., King, 2-31, 33, 35. 3S,
39, 40, 80
Wolfe, James, General, 73, 74. 75
Wood, William, 56
'^m T
r< Yc
\
INDEX OF PLACES.
ABR
A BRAHAM, Heights of, 76
■^^ Acheen, 79
Agra, 79
Aix-la-Chapelle, 67
Alleghany Mountains, the, 70
Almanza, 37
America, 59, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74. -j-
78, 90, 97, 09
Arcot, 82
Amee, 82
Aschaffenburg, 63
Athlone, 15
Aughrim, 15
Austria, 57, 68
TDAHAR, 94
■*-^ Bantam, 79
Barcelona, 37
Bavaria, 34, 63
Beachy Head, 18
Belgium, 33
Bengal, 83, 84, 85, 94, 96
Bergen, 72
Blair Athol, 10, 65
Blenheim, 34
Bombay. 80, 81
Boyne, the, 14
Braemar, 49
Brandenburg, 17
Brest, 76, 77
Brihuega, 37
Buxar, 94
r'ALCUTTA, 81, 83
^-^ Campeachy Bay, 78
Canada, 70, 73, 74, 77, 78
Cape Breton, 73, 78
-*o*-
FRA
Carrickfergus. 14
Carthagena, 60
Chinsurah, 85
Clifton, 66
Comorin, Cape, 82
Corryarrick, 65
Crefeld, 73
Culloden, 67
Cromdale, 10
T^ANUBE, the, 34
■*-^ Darien, 41
Deccan, the, 82
Derby, 65
Dettingen, 63
Drogheda, 14
Dublin, 13, 14, 15, 44
Dunbar, 65
Dunkeld, 10
pDINBURGH, 65
■*-' Empire, the, 17, 30
Enniskillen, 13
"PALKIRK Muir, 66
-*■ Florida, 78
Fontenoy, 64
Fort Duquesne, 71, 72
Fort St. David, 80, 81, 85
Fort St. George, 80, 81
Fort William, Scotland, 11
Fort William, India, 80, 81
Foj-le, the, 13
France, 16, 17, 24, 33, 34, 35, 36, 50,
57, 63, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71. 78,
97
Frankfort, 73
io8
Index of Places.
GEO
pEORGIA, 70
^^ Germany, 17, 33, 62, 72. 73
Gibraltar, 34, 46, 57
Glasgow, 66
Glencoe, 11
Glenfinnan, 65
HALIFAX, 7T
Hanau, 64
Hanover, 25, 33, 57. 62, 69, 72
Havanna, 78
Havre, 77
Holland, 17, =4. 5i. 63
Hooghly, 80
Hooghly, the, 85
I
NDIA, East, 79-85, 92-96
India, West, 78
Indies, the, 29, 33
Inverary, 11
Inverness, 67
Inverness-shire, 65
Ireland, 13, 16, 18, 41, 56
J
AVA, 7Q
K
ENNEBEC, the, 70
- Kensington, 31
Killiecrankie, 9
Kistna, the, 82
Kloster-Zeven, 72
T AGOS, 77
■*-' La Hogue. 18
Landen, 19
Lille, 35
Limerick, 15
Lochaber, 9
London, 42, 65, 93
Londonderry, 13
Lorraine, 29
Louisburg, 73
Louisiana, 70
MADRAS, 80, 81, 82, 85, 95
Madrid, 36
Malplaquet 35
Manilla, 78
Mauritius, 81
Mayn, the, 63
RYS
ISIediterranean Sea, 33
Mexico, Gulf of, 70
Minden, 73
Middlesex, 91
Milan, 29
Minorca, 35, 46, 63, 72, 78
Monghir, 96
Mons, 19
Montreal, 77
Montrose, 50
Moorshedabad, 84
Mysore, 96
■NT AMUR, 19, 35
^ ^ Naples, 29, 46
Netherlands, the Spanish, 29, 33, 35,
46
Newfoundland, 46
Newtonbutler, 13
Niagara, 76
Nova Scotia, 71
QHIO, the, 71
^-^ Orissa, 94
Osnabruck, 57
Oude, 94
Oudenarde, 35
PACIFIC, the, 60
■*■ Paita, 60
Paris, 78
Passaro, Cape, 52
Patna, 85
Perth, 50, 65
Philippine Islands, 60, 78
Plassey, 84
Pondicherry, 81, 85
Portobello, 60
Portugal, 73, 77, 78, 80
Preston, 40
Preston Pans, 65
Prussia, 17, 63, 67, 71
Pyrenees, the, 29
pvUEBEC, 74, 76
\c Quiberon Bay, 77
AMILLIES, 35
Rhine, the, 34, 63
R
Russia, 71
Ryswick, 19, 20
Index of Places.
109
SAI
CT. GERMAINS, 27
•^ St. Lawrence, the, 74
St. Philips, 68
Saratoga, 97
Savoy, 17
Saxony, 71
Scotland, 7-12, 41, 42, 65, 67
Sedgemoor, 32
Sheriffmuir, 50
Sicily, 20, 52
Silesia, 63, 67
South Seas, 53, 59
Spain, 17, 27, 29, 30, 33, 36, 52
59. 67, 87
Stade, 72
Steinkirk, 19
Stirling, 50, 66
58
WOL
Sumatra, 79
Surat, 79, 80
nrOURNAY, 64
•*■ Ticonderoga, 76
Trichinopoly, 82, 83
IJTRECHT, 37, 45, 46, 48, 51, 7S
yiLAINE, the, 77
• \'illa Viciosa, 37
T\rANDEWASH, 85
* ^ Weser, the, 74
Wolfe's Ccve, 76
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